Effects of Film Thickness on Microstructure and Ferroelectric Properties of Bi3.15Nd0.85Ti3O12 Thin Films Prepared by Sol-Gel Method

Abstract

Bi3.15Nd0.85Ti3O12 (BNT) thin films with different thicknesses (200, 270, 360, 450 and 540 nm) were prepared on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si substrates by sol–gel method. The effect of film thickness on the microstructure and ferroelectric properties of BNT thin films was investigated. All BNT thin films were consisted of a single phase of bismuth-layered perovskite structure. With increasing film thickness, grains gradually became larger, the remanent polarization (2Pr) firstly increased and then decreased, and the leakage current density showed opposite trend. The 360 nm-thick BNT film exhibited better electrical properties with 2Pr26 µC/cm2, coercive field (2Ec) 220 kV/cm, dielectric constant 345 (at 1 MHz) and low leakage current density.