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Microstructure and dielectric properties with CuO additions to liquid phase sintered BaTiO3 thin films

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Abstract

The refractory nature of BaTiO3 leads to limited densification and grain growth for films processed at low temperatures and a modest nonlinear dielectric response due to a marked sensitivity to physical scale and material quality. Adding liquid-forming sintering aids, common in bulk ceramics, to thin films enhances mass transport, leading to enhanced grain growth at lower temperatures. This work explores the effectiveness of a sputtered CuO buffer layer with BaO–B2O3 (BBO) fluxes to engineer the microstructure of BaTiO3 films. Grain size and homogeneity increase in the presence of even a ∼1 nm CuO layer. In general, grain size increases from 75 to 370 nm with an addition of 2.2% BBO and 8 nm CuO. Room temperature capacitance in fluxed films increases by a factor of 5 over pure films, and ferroelectric phase transitions are clearly observable in dielectric measurements. CuO–BBO proves effective on (0001) Al2O3 and (100) MgO substrates, although all microstructures are notably finer for the latter.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This material is based upon work supported by the NSF Center for Dielectrics and Piezoelectrics (NSF 1361503), the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF DGE-0946818), and the Army Research Office contract (W911NF1410285). 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, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, 27606, USA

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

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  1. David T. Harris
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Correspondence to David T. Harris.

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Harris, D.T., Burch, M.J., Mily, E.J. et al. Microstructure and dielectric properties with CuO additions to liquid phase sintered BaTiO3 thin films. Journal of Materials Research 31, 1018–1026 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2016.89

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