Matching conflicting oxidation conditions and strain accommodation in perovskite epitaxial thin-film ferroelectric varactors

Abstract

Perovskite oxide materials of the general chemical formula ABO3 are a rich playground for epitaxial stacks of different functional layers for novel device applications. In the example of a tunable metal–insulator–metal ferroelectric varactor (tunable capacitor) made from the highest conducting perovskite SrMoO3 as an electrode and the tunable dielectric Ba0.5Sr0.5TiO3 (BST), we show how the extremely conflicting oxidation potentials can be conciliated in a fully functional heterostructure. Controlling the growth kinetics by the substrate temperature, oxygen pressure, and oxidation time, the formation of the non-conducting Mo6+ states can be effectively suppressed and the BST cation stoichiometry can be tuned. The cumulative impact of the cation nonstoichiometry, epitaxial strain, and oxygen deficiency in the BST films leads to the expansion of their c-axis lattice parameter via the formation of point defects. The dielectric permittivity of 440, the high tunability of 3.5, and the quality factor of 50 are achieved for the varactors at the frequency of 1 GHz. It turns out that the varactor performance is anti-correlated to the tetragonal lattice distortion of BST, which itself is interrelated to the oxidation conditions. The mechanism of the leakage current through oxygen deficient BST layers of the varactors is analyzed within the combined scenarios of the space-charge limited current and Poole–Frenkel field-assisted emission from traps. The achieved high capacitance per unit area of 0.04 pF/μm2 and moderate leakage currents of 0.025 μA/pF make these varactors suitable for applications in microwave microelectronic devices.