Microstructural and Electrical Characterization of Barium Strontium Titanate Thin Films

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe kinetics of BST thin film grain nucleation and growth caused by rapid thermal annealing have been investigated. A series of Ba0.67Sr0.33Tii0.5O3 films were deposited on Pt electrodes using a metal-organic decomposition process. The effects of anneal time and temperature on BST grain sizes were studied by altering the processing conditions during RTA. A series of films were annealed by RTA at temperatures ranging from 550°C to 950°C for times ranging from 30 to 120 seconds. Crystallographic and microstructural characterization were done using XRD and TEM. The XRD results indicated that BST grain size increased with increasing anneal temperature, but was not affected by anneal time. Plan-view TEM indicated that BST grains were imbedded in an amorphous matrix. The average grain size was on the order of 200 Å.