Crystal Structure Modification and Dielectric Properties of Sr- and La-Containing A2B2O7 Thin Films for High-Temperature Operational Film Capacitors.

Abstract

In order to obtain thermally stable thin-film materials with high dielectric constant, A2B2O7 thin films (Sr2Ta2O7, Sr2Nb2O7, La2Zr2O7, and La2Ti2O7) containing Sr or La and their solid solutions were grown on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si substrates by RF sputtering and their crystal structures and dielectric properties were investigated. The Sr2Ta2O7 and La2Ti2O7 films exhibit highly oriented crystal structures. By contrast, the Sr2Nb2O7 and La2Zr2O7 films exhibit polycrystalline structures. The leakage properties of the Sr-containing films are lower and more stable in the high-temperature region (up to 300 °C) than those of the La-containing films. Among the investigated films, the Sr2Ta2O7 film grown at 500 °C and annealed at 900 °C shows the most stable dielectric constant with respect to temperature in the temperature range from room temperature to 300 °C. In addition, the xSr2Ta2O7-(1-x)La2Ti2O7 solid solutions exhibit enhanced dielectric properties at x = 0.35. The dielectric constant is greater than 100, and its variation with temperature is less than 10%. The Sr-containing A2B2O7 ferroelectric thin films have potential applications as high-temperature film capacitors that can operate at temperatures as high as 300 °C.