Pulsed laser deposition and characterization of Bi3.25Nd0.75Ti3O12 thin films buffered with La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 electrode

Bi3.25Nd0.75Ti3O12 (BNT) ferroelectric thin films with a thickness of f0.5 Am, on substrates of Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si, (100) SrTiO3 and (100) MgO, with a 0.4-Am-thick La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 (LSMO) layer as bottom electrode, were deposited via pulsed laser deposition. The multilayer thin films were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and electrical measurement. The LSMO layers on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si were polycrystalline, while those on SrTiO3 and MgO single crystal substrates were highly c-oriented. The BNT films were polycrystalline on LSMO covered Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si and MgO, and c-axis oriented on LSMO/SrTiO3. Dielectric constant and loss tangent (at 1 kHz) of the BNT thin films on LSMO buffered Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si, STO and MgO substrates were 224, 263 and 204, and 0.03, 0.04 and 0.05, respectively. They had a remnant polarization of 25.4, 29.5 and 19.1 AC/cm, and a coercive field of 133, 176, 134 kV/cm, respectively. No fatigue was found for all the three BNT thin films up to 3 10 switching cycles. D 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.