In Situ Electrical-Field-Induced Growth And Properties Of Bi3tinbo9 Ferroelectric Thin Films

With Bi3TiNbO9 (BTN) ferroelectric samples, in situ electrical-field-induced growth of ferroelectric thin films was demonstrated to control the films' microstructure and manipulate their ferroelectric properties. BTN films on Ti/SiO2/Si substrates were grown at a relatively low temperature (650 degreesC) with a biased electrical field during pulsed-laser deposition. The (001) orientation of the films, which makes no contribution to their polarization, was effectively reduced by the in situ electrical field of strength of 70 V/cm. This results in a large increase of remnant polarization from 1.1 to 6.2 muC/cm(2), and reduction of the coercive field from 70 to 50 kV/cm, comparing the films grown freely under the same condition. Furthermore, the films showed an excellent fatigue-free property of up to 10(10) switching cycles. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.