Improvement of dielectric （Ba,Sr）TiO3 thin tunability and loss tangent of films with K doping

Ba0.6Sr0.4 TiO3 thin films doped with K were deposited on Pt/Ti/SiO2 /Si substrates by the chemical solution deposition method. The structure, surface morphology and the dielectric and tunable properties of Ba0.6Sr0.4 TiO 3 thin films have been studied in detail. The K content in Ba0.6Sr0.4TiO3 thin films has a strong influence on the material’s properties including surface morphology and the dielectric and tunable properties. It was found that the Curie temperature of K-doped Ba0.6Sr0.4 TiO3 films shifts to a higher value compared with that of undoped Ba0.6Sr0.4TiO3 thin films, which leads to a dielectric enhancement of K-doped Ba0.6Sr0.4 TiO3 films at room temperature. At the optimized content of 0.02 mol, the dielectric loss tangent is reduced significantly from 0.057 to 0.020. Meanwhile, the tunability is enhanced obviously from 26% to 48% at the measured frequency of 1 MHz and the maximum value of the figure of merit is 23.8. This suggests that such films have potential applications for tunable devices.     

Dielectric Properties of Multilayered Ba0.5Sr0.5TiO3 Thin Films Deposited on ITO-Coated Corning 1737 Glass by rf Magnetron Sputtering

A new stacking method via variation ofsubstrate temperature in rfmagnetron sputter is used to fabricate polycrystalline/polycrystalline Ba0.5Sr0.5TiO3 thin films with higher dielectric constant, higher breakdown strength and lower leakage current densities than those prepared by a conventionM deposition method. The improved figure of merit G （ε0εrEb） of the Ba0.5Sr0.5TiO3 thin films implies that they are a feasible insulation layer for thin film electroluminescent devices.     

Temperature-Dependent Structure of Epitaxial （Ba,Sr）TiOa Films Grown on SrRuO3-Covered SrTiO3 Substrates

Growth dynamics of epitaxiai （Ba, Sr）TiO3 thin films deposited at different temperatures on SrRuO3/SrTiO3 substrates by pulsed laser deposition is investigated by transmission electron microscopy. The films exhibit a layered structure comprising sublayers with distinctive features in regard to the remaining strain, density of misfit dislocations and/or lattice defects, and growth habit. We correlate these temperature-dependent features with the predominant misfit-strain relaxation mechanisms for each one of the detected growth regimes. The thickness dependence of the film structure is discussed within the framework of the predictions for a kineticaily modified Stranski-Krastanov growth mode.     

Characterization of Mn—Doped Ba1—xSrxTiO3 Thin Films Prepared by the Sol—Gel Method

Undoped and Mn-doped Ba1-xSrxTiO3(BST) thin films have been fabricated on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si by an aqueous acetate sol-gel method.The BST stock solution can be easily mixed with an aqueous metal ion solution and is stable at room temperature.The annealing temperature of the doped and undoped films is between 650-750℃.The x-ray photoelectron spectra results show that the Mn2p3/2 valence state in the BST is the sampe as that of the original Mn(Ⅱ） dopant,The dielectric constant of the BST thin films can be increased to 800,and the loss tangent can be decreased to 0.01 due to the Mn(Ⅱ） doping.The leakage current of the BST films can also be greatly reduced.     

Magnetostatic Coupling in Ba0.8Sr0.2TiO3/CoFe2O4 Magnetoelectric Composite Thin Films of 2-2-Type Structure

Ba0.8Sr0.2 TiO3/CoFe2O4 （BST/CFO） magnetoelectric composite thin films of 2-2-type structures are prepared onto Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si substrates by a sol-gel process and spin coating technique. The structure of the prepared thin film is substrate/BST/CFO/. . ./CFO/BST. Three CFO ferromagnetic layers are separated from each other by a thin BST layer. The upper CFO layer is magnetostatically coupled with the lower CFO layer. Subsequent scanning electron microscopy investigations show that the prepared thin films exhibit good morphologies and have a compact structure, and the cross-sectional mierographs clearly display a multilayered nanostructure of multilayered thin films. The composite thin films exhibit good magnetic and ferroelectric properties. The spacing between ferromagnetic layers can be varied by adjusting the thickness of intermediate BST layer. It is found that the strength of magnetostatic coupling has a great impact on magnetoelectric properties of composite thin film; that is, the magnetoelectric voltage coefficient of the composite thin film tends to increase with the decrease of pacing between two neighboring CFO ferromagnetic layers as a result of magnetostatic coupling effect.     

Design of anisotropic reflector with birefringent thin films

A novel design for dielectric anisotropic mirrors with birefringent thin films for normal incidence is presented. This mirror consists of a stack of quarter-wave biaxial layers. The biaxial anisotropic layers can be fabricated by oblique deposition. The reflectance is different for two linear polarizations of light incidence on the mirrors. As a numerical example, the design is carried out on glass with TiO2 and ZrO2. These thin films could be applied to anisotropic reflective devices for lasers.     

Effective Medium Model for Refractive Indices of Thin Films with Oblique Columnar Structure

The refractive indices of thin films, containing dielectric and voids in an oblique columnar structure, are modelled in the quasi-static limit. The dielectric function is shown to be strongly dependent on the angle of incidence and on the columnar orientation for p-polarized light. This model is applied to model ZnS thin films with oblique columnar structures and the computed results have been given.     

Optical study of Ba(Mn_xTi_(1-x)O_3) thin films by spectroscopic ellipsometry

Stoichiometric Ba(Mn_xTi_(1-x)O_3) (BMT)thin films with various values of x were deposited on Si(111)substrates by the sol-gel technique.The influence of Mn content on the optical properties was studied by spectroscopic ellipsometry(SE)in the UV–Vis–NIR region.By fitting the measured ellipsometric parameter(Ψand)with a four-phase model(air/BMT+voids/BMT/Si(111)),the key optical constants of the thin films have been obtained.It was found that the refractive index n and the extinction coefficient k increase with increasing Mn content due to the increase in the packing density.Furthermore,a strong dependence of the optical band gap Egon Mn/Ti ratios in the deposited films was observed,and it was inferred that the energy level of conduction bands decreases with increasing Mn content.     

Influence of substrate surface roughness on light scattering of TiO2 optical thin films

Optical thin films are used in many optical elements; however, light scattering can be problematic. We investigate the effect of substrate surface roughness on the light scattering of optical thin films. The substrates are classified according to their surface roughness, from fine to very rough, and coated with a single TiO2 layer or a SiO2/TiO2 multilayer. The light scattering intensity increases as the substrate roughness increases. Scanning electron microscopy reveals that the number of nodules formed in the optical thin films increases with the substrate roughness, which affects the light scattering properties.     

Optical coatings on fiber for relative-humidity sensing applications

A fiber-optic relative-humidity （RH） sensor composed of multilayer of porous dielectric films is proposed. The transducer deposited on fiber end-face is multilayer coating consisting of nano-porous TiO2 and SiO2 films, which forms a low-fineness Fabry-Perot （F-P） filter with one of minimum reflections at about 1350- nm wavelength. The dielectric thin films realized by e-beam evaporation without ion-source assistance have columnar and porous structures, which exhibit sensitivity to RH change of environments. When the sensor is exposed to an environment of RH change from 10.9% to 92.8%, experimental results demonstrate 77.9-nm shift of characteristic wavelength.     

Transparent conductive reduced graphene oxide thin films produced by spray coating

Reduced graphene oxide thin films were fabricated on quartz by spray coating method using a stable dispersion of reduced graphene oxide in N,N-Dimethylformamide.The dispersion was produced by chemical reduction of graphene oxide,and the film thickness was controlled with the amount of spray volume.AFM measurements revealed that the thin films have near-atomically flat surface.The chemical and structural parameters of the samples were analyzed by Raman and XPS studies.It was found that the thin films show electrical conductivity with good optical transparency in the visible to near infrared region.The sheet resistance of the films can be significantly reduced by annealing in vacuum and reach 58 k?with a light transmittance of 68.69%at 550 nm.The conductive transparent properties of the reduced graphene oxide thin films would be useful to develop flexible electronics.     

Epitaxial growth and in-plane dielectric properties of orthorhombic HoMnO3 films

Orthorhombic HoMnO3(HMO) thin films were grown epitaxially on LaAlO3(001) substrates by using pulsed laser deposition technique. The films showed perfect orthorhombic crystallization and were well-aligned with the substrates. The in-plane dielectric constant and loss of HMO films were measured as functions of temperature(80–300 K) and frequency(120 Hz–100 kHz) by using coplanar interdigital electrodes. Two thermally activated dielectric relaxations were found, and the respective peaks shifted to higher temperatures as the measuring frequency increased. The in-plane dielectric properties of epitaxial orthorhombic HMO films were considered as universal dielectric response behavior, and the dipolar effects and the hopping conductivity induced by the charge carriers were used to explain the results.     

Grain-Size Effect on the Dielectric Properties of Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3

We prepared bismuth sodium titanate (Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3)ultrafine powders by the sol-gel method.The dielctric properties of the pressed pellets and fired ceramics with different grain sizes as a function of tempernature at various frequencies were studied.With decreasing grain size,the dielecric anomaly around 200℃ increases,while the dielectric thermal hysteresis decreases,All the samples with grain sizes larger than 100nm show dielectric peaks at temperature of about 350℃.The very little change in Tm observed down to the critical size indicates that Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3 is an order-disorder system above 200℃,In addition,the dielectric peak becomes lower with decreasing grain size and the ferroelectric critical size of Bi0.5Nan0.5TiO3 was eventually determined to be about 100nm according to the disappearance of dielectric peak.     

The microwave response of MgB2 /Al2O3 superconducting thin films

Microwave characteristics of MgB2/Al2O3 superconducting thin films were investigated by coplanar resonator technique. The thin films studied have different grain sizes resulting from different growth techniques. The experimental results can be described very well by a grain-size model which combines coplanar resonator theory and Josephson junction network model. It was found that the penetration depth and surface resistance of thin films with smaller grain sizes are larger than those of thin films with larger grain sizes.     

Morphological and electrical properties of SrTiO_3/TiO_2/SrTiO_3 sandwich structures prepared by plasma sputtering

SrTiO_3(STO) and TiO_2 are insulating materials with large dielectric constants and opposite signs of the quadratic coefficient of voltage(α). Insertion of a TiO_2 thin film between STO layers increases the linearity of the capacitance in response to an applied voltage, to meet the increasing demand of large-capacitance-density dynamic random access memory capacitors. Both STO and TiO_2 suffer from the problem of high leakage current owing to their almost equivalent and low bandgap energies. To overcome this, the thickness of the thin TiO_2 film sandwiched between the STO films was varied. A magnetron sputtering system equipped with radio frequency and direct current power supply was employed for depositing the thin films. Ti N was deposited as the top and bottom metal electrodes to form a metal–insulator metal(MIM) structure,which exhibited a very large linear capacitance density of 21 fF/um~2 that decreased by increasing the thickness of the TiO_2 film. The leakage current decreased with an increase in the thickness of TiO_2, and for a 27-nm-thick film, the measured leakage current was 2.0 × 10~(-10) A. X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy revealed that Ti N, STO, and TiO_2 films are crystalline and TiO_2 has a dominant anatese phase structure.     

Fabrication and Properties of Double-Side Tl2Ba2CaCu2O8 Thin Film on CeO2 Buffered Sapphire Substrate

The double-side Tl2Ba2 CaCu2O8 （Tl-2212） superconducting thin films were fabricated on CeO2 buffered sapphire substrates. The reactive magnetron sputtering technique was used to grow CeO2 buffer thin films on sapphire substrates. Making use of the metal cerium as a sputtering source, the depositing rate is much higher compared with the CeO2 target. The Ti-2212 thin films on CeO2 buffered sapphire substrates were fabricated by adc magnetron sputtering and post-annealing process. The x-ray diffraction indicates that the thin film is pure Tl-2212 phase with the e-axis perpendicular to the substrate surfaces, and epitaxially grown on the CeO2 buffered sapphire. The critical transition temperature Tc is around 106K, the critical current density Jc is around 3.5 MA/cm^2 at 77K, and the microwave surface resistance R8 at 77K and 10 CHz of the film is as low as 390μ Ω.     

Switching Properties and Phase Transition Mechanism of Mo^6＋—Doped Vanadium Dioxide Thin Films

Using V2O3 and MoO3 powders as precursors,a novel preparation method,i.e.,the so-called inorganic solgel,is developed to synthesize Mo^6 -doped vanadium dioxide(VO2) thin films.The structure,valence state,phase transition temperature and magnitude of resistivity change are characterized by x-ray diffraction,x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and the four-point equipment.The results show that the main chemical composition of doped thin films was VO2,the sturcture of MoO3 in doped thin films did not change,and the phase transition temperature of doped thin films was obviously lowered with the increasing MoO3 doped concentration,but the magnitude of resistivity change was also decreased.However.so long as MoO3 doped concentration was not more than 5wt%.,the magnitude of resistivity change of doped thin films still reached more 2 orders.The analysis show that MoO3 dissolved in crystal structure of VO2 formed the donor defect MOv^x and then reduced the forbidden band width,which lowered the phase transition temperature,Consequently it was widened applications of the VO2 thin films.     

Sr-doping effects on conductivity,charge transport,and ferroelectricity of Ba_(0.7)La_(0.3)TiO_3 epitaxial thin films

Sr-doped Ba_0.7La_0.3TiO₃(BSLTO)thin films are deposited by pulsed laser deposition,and their microstructure,conductivity,carrier transport mechanism,and ferroelectricity are systematically investigated.The x-ray diffraction measurements demonstrate that Sr-doping reduces the lattice constant of BSLTO thin films,resulting in the enhanced phonon energy in the films as evidenced by the Raman measurements.Resistivity-temperature and Hall effect measurements demonstrate that Sr can gradually reduce electrical resistivity while the electron concentration remains almost unchanged at high temperatures.For the films with semiconducting behavior,the charge transport model transforms from variable range hopping to small polaron hopping as the measurement temperature increases.The metalic conductive behaviors in the films with Sr=0.30,0.40 conform to thermal phonon scattering mode.The difference in charge transport behavior dependent on the A-site cation doping,is clarified.It is revealed that the increasing of phonon energy by Sr doping is responsible for lower activation energy of small polaron hopping,higher carrier mobility,and lower electrical resistivity.Interestingly,the piezoelectric force microscopy(PFM)results demonstrate that all the BSLTO films can exhibit ferroelectricity,especially for the room temperature metallic conduction film with Sr=0.40.These results imply that Sr-doping could be a potential way to explore ferroelectric metal materials for other perovskite oxides.     

Improvement in Dielectric Tunability of Ba0.6Sr0.4TiO4-Mg2TiO4 Composite Ceramics via Heterogeneous Nucleation Processing

Dielectric tunable composite ceramics Ba0.6Sr0.4 TiO4-Mg2 TiO4 （BST-MT） are prepared with a heterogeneous nucleation sol-gel approach. The Mg2 TiO4 powders are synthesized by the conventionM solid-state reaction method. The micro-sized MT powders with dispersant Ciba-4010 are introduced into Ba-Sr-Ti sol to obtain uniform and homogeneous mixture compounds with nano-sized BST particles synthesized via heterogeneous nucleation （HN） in the sol-gel process. Thus, the mierostructural and dielectric properties can be tailored. The dielectric constants of BST-MT composite ceramics can be adjusted in a larg＇e range from 294 to 1790, and the dielectric tunability can be adjusted from 29.4% to 37.0% with different MT contents from 60wt% to 20wt%. Compared to the samples prepared by the conventional solid-state （SS） process, the BST-MT composite ceramics by the heterogeneous nucleation sol-gel process exhibit a more uniform microstructure, and improve dielectric properties.     

Large third—order optical nonlinearity in Au nanomeytre particle doped BaTiO3 composite films near the resonant frequency

Nanometre-sized gold particles embedded in BaTiO₃ composite thin films (Au/BaTiO₃) were fabricated by the pulsed laser deposition technique. The films were grown on MgO (100) substrates at 700℃. The crystalline property of the films was studied with x-ray diffraction. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy was used to check the Au composition and chemical nature for the deposited films. The absorption peak due to the surface plasmon resonance of Au particles was observed at the wavelength of about 570 nm, which increased as the metal particle size was increased. The nonlinear optical properties of the Au/BaTiO₃ films were determined using the z-scan method at the wavelength of 532 nm, which was close to the resonant frequency. The real and imaginary parts of the third-order nonlinear susceptibility χ⁽³⁾ at an Au concentration of about 6.7 at.% were determined to be 6.62×10^-7 esu and -6.24×10^-8 esu, respectively. The films showed a very large absorption, masking the nonlinear refraction effect at high metal concentrations.