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Mechanisms for microstructure enhancement in flux-assisted growth of barium titanate on sapphire

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Abstract

A low-temperature thin-film processing method for BaTiO3 is studied to understand microstructure development in the presence of a liquid-forming phase. The addition of a eutectic barium borate flux is found to prevent nucleation of BaTiO3 during pulsed-laser deposition on sapphire substrates at 400 °C. Subsequent thermal annealing above the flux’s eutectic temperature dramatically enhances the film’s microstructural development and crystallinity. A secondary reaction phase of barium aluminate is identified at the substrate interface in both unfluxed and fluxed films, although it is more pronounced in the fluxed films. This barium aluminate phase in conjunction with the liquid flux serves to nucleate {111} twins in the barium titanate, which subsequently lead to enhanced grain growth. The resulting large-grained and dense thin films result in markedly improved dielectric properties.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Funding was provided by Defense MicroElectronics Activity (H94003-10-0-1002). This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship for M.J. Burch under Grant No. DGE-0946818. Any opinion, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. The authors acknowledge the use of the Analytical Instrumentation Facility (AIF) at North Carolina State University, which is supported by the State of North Carolina and the National Science Foundation.

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  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Center for Dielectrics and Piezoelectrics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 27606, USA

    Matthew J. Burch, Jing Li, David T. Harris, Jon-Paul Maria & Elizabeth C. Dickey

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  1. Matthew J. Burch
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  2. Jing Li
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Correspondence to Matthew J. Burch.

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Burch, M.J., Li, J., Harris, D.T. et al. Mechanisms for microstructure enhancement in flux-assisted growth of barium titanate on sapphire. Journal of Materials Research 29, 843–848 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2014.59

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