Microstructure and dielectric parameters of epitaxial SrRuO3/BaTiO3/SrRuO3 heterostructures

Abstract

Epitaxial films of ferroelectric barium titanate are desirable in a number of applications but their properties are inferior to those of bulk material. Relations between microstructure and dielectric properties may give better understanding of limitations. Trilayer heterostructures SrRuO3/BaTiO3/SrRuO3 were grown by laser ablation on (100)LaAlO3 and (100)MgO substrates. The BaTiO3 layer was granular in structure. When grown on (100)SrRuO3/(100)LaAlO3, it was preferentially a-axis oriented due to tensile mechanical stress. Using (100)MgO as a substrate, on the other hand, produced a mixture of about equal value of a-axis and c-axis oriented grains of BaTiO3. The dielectric permittivity, ε, of the BaTiO3 layer was almost twice as large, at T>200 K and f=100 kHz, for the LaAlO3 substrate as compared to the MgO one. Its maximum value (ε/ε0≈6200) depended on temperature of growth, grain size, and electric field and compares well with optimal values commonly used for ceramic material. The maximum in the ε(T) shifted from about 370 to 320 K when the grain size in the BaTiO3 film decreased from 100 to 40 nm. At T<300 K, hysteresis loops in polarization versus electric field were roughly symmetric. The BaTiO3 films grown on (100)SrRuO3/(100)MgO exhibit the largest remnant polarizations and coercive fields in the temperature range 100–380 K.