Fabrication And Characterization Of Epitaxial BaTiO3 Thin Film Employing Platinum (111) Template

Materials Science Division, National Aerospace Laboratories, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Bangalore 560017, India

Adv. Mater. Lett., 2013, Current Issue, 4 (8), pp 632-636

DOI: 10.5185/amlett.2012.11476

Publication Date (Web): Jul 13, 2013

Copyright © IAAM-VBRI Press

E-mail: som@nal.res.in

Abstract

Epitaxial Barium Titanate (BaTiO₃) thin films were fabricated on Platinised (Pt 111) Si/SiO² wafer by spin coating of metalloorganic sol gel solution. A preferred directional growth was obtained for BT (BaTiO3) thin film by employing Platinum (111) coating as a template. BT film was heat-treated at 700°C for 1 hour using the direct insertion method. The film was epitaxially grown with (111) and (211) being parallel to the Pt(111). The epitaxial growth of the thin film along (111) orientation was confirmed by XRD, AFM and SEM. The cross sectional view of SEM image showed that most nuclei were formed at the interface between the film and the substrate. BT thin film was characterized for its ferroelectric, dielectric and piezoelectric properties. Ferroelectric hysteresis measurement yielded high spontaneous polarization value (12.3µC/cm²) comparatively at low electric field (150kV/cm). Substantial increase in piezoelectric d₃₃ was explained in the light of domain wall engineering.

Keywords

BaTiO3, thin film, AFM, ferroelectricity.