Orientation Dependence of Transverse Piezoelectric Properties of Epitaxial BaTiO3 Films

Abstract

The orientation dependence of the piezoelectric properties of epitaxial BaTiO3 (BTO) films was investigated. The (001), (101), and (111)-oriented BTO films of 2–2.5 µm thickness were deposited on SrRuO3/Pt/MgO or SrRuO3/SrTiO3 substrates by rf magnetron sputtering. X-ray diffraction measurements showed that (001), (101), and (111)BTO films were epitaxially grown on the substrates. The lattice parameters of each BTO film were different from those of the bulk single crystal, and the unit cell volume of the BTO films was larger than that of bulk BTO. The transverse piezoelectric coefficients e31*=d31/s11 of (001)BTO films was almost independent of applied electric field, whereas e31* of (111)BTO increased with voltage owing to the domain motion. The piezoelectric properties of (101)BTO films strongly depended on the in-plane alignment of the crystal structure, and a relatively large e31* of -1.3 C/m2 could be achieved by enhancement of the domain motion. Although the absolute values of e31* are smaller than theoretical calculation values, we could demonstrate that the optimization of crystal orientation is effective for enhancing BTO-based lead-free piezoelectric films.