BTO Layer Research Articles

Barium titanate write-once read-many times resistive memory with an ultra-high on/off current ratio of 108

Write-once read-many times (WORM) resistive memories fabricated using perovskite barium titanate (BaTiO3, BTO) resistive switching (RS) layer are demonstrated in this study. The BTO RS layers with thicknesses of 3.2–8.5 nm are fabricated by radio frequency sputtering at room temperature. Annealing processes at 400–600 °C are used to modify the oxygen vacancy content in the BTO layer and thereby control the OFF-state current of an Al/BTO/n+-Si WORM device. The ION/IOFF ratio increases with increasing annealing temperature until 500 °C. A negative effect is observed when the temperature further rises to 600 °C. The optimal Al/BTO/n+-Si device shows an ultra-high ION/IOFF ratio of 108 and a low coefficient of variation of 6% for set voltages. The writing speed is 80 ns and the power consumption is 400 pJ. In addition, retention and stress tests are performed to confirm high data storage reliability of the device. Mechanisms for voltage-polarity independent writing process and the related energy band diagrams are explored.

Trans-reflective tunable color filter using electro-optic material

This research presents designing a tunable trans-reflective color filter utilizing Barium Titanate (BTO) and optimizing its performance by applying an artificial intelligence (AI) based inverse design model. The AI-based color filter design process is efficient and minimizes design challenges. The AI model comprising two sub-blocks is trained using a dataset that correlates geometrical parameters, refractive index, and input voltage variations with desired color outputs to precisely control the color filter's performance. The first is the parametric optimization block (POB), which employs two deep neural networks (DNNs) in the forward and inverse directions to achieve the optimized geometry of the proposed meta-atoms. Once the optimal parameters are completed, the next block, i.e., voltage tuning block (VTB), is employed to map specific colors onto the refractive index and the applied voltage of the BTO layer. In this way, by changing the voltage of the BTO layer, we can leverage BTO's tunable optical properties, which allow for a broad range of vibrant and customizable colors. The optimized color filter demonstrates enhanced tunability and efficiency, opening up new possibilities for applications in displays and imaging devices.

Printing Formation of Flexible (001)-Oriented PZT Films on Plastic Substrates.

High-quality, uniaxially oriented, and flexible PbZr0.52Ti0.48O3 (PZT) films were fabricated on flexible RbLaNb2O7/BaTiO3 (RLNO/BTO)-coated polyimide (PI) substrates. All layers were fabricated by a photo-assisted chemical solution deposition (PCSD) process using KrF laser irradiation for photocrystallization of the printed precursors. The Dion-Jacobson perovskite RLNO thin films on flexible PI sheets were employed as seed layers for the uniaxially oriented growth of PZT films. To obtain the uniaxially oriented RLNO seed layer, a BTO nanoparticle-dispersion interlayer was fabricated to avoid PI substrate surface damage under excess photothermal heating, and the RLNO has been orientedly grown only at around 40 mJ·cm-2 at 300 °C. The prepared RLNO seed layer on the BTO/PI substrate showed very high (010)-oriented growth with a very high Lotgering factor (F(010) = 1.0). By using the flexible (010)-oriented RLNO film on BTO/PI, PZT film crystal growth was possible via KrF laser irradiation of a sol-gel-derived precursor film at 50 mJ·cm-2 at 300 °C. The obtained PZT film showed highly (001)-oriented growth on the flexible plastic substrates with F(001) = 0.92 without any micro-cracks. The RLNO was only uniaxial-oriented grown at the top part of the RLNO amorphous precursor layer. The oriented grown and amorphous phases of RLNO would have two important roles for this multilayered film formation: (1) triggering orientation growth of the PZT film at the top and (2) the stress relaxation of the underneath BTO layer to suppress the micro-crack formation. This is the first time that PZT films have been crystallized directly on flexible substrates. The combined processes of photocrystallization and chemical solution deposition are a cost-effective and highly on-demand process for the fabrication of flexible devices.

Imprint phenomenon of ferroelectric switching characteristics in BaTiO3/PbTiO3 multilayer thin films

Materialsin which ferroelectric polarization can be locally controlled have potential for high-density information storage applications. Herein, we investigated the ferroelectric polarization switching characteristics of epitaxial BaTiO3/PbTiO3 (BTO/PTO) multilayer thin films by using piezoresponse force microscopy. Pulsed laser deposition was used to form an epitaxial BTO layer on an epitaxial ferroelectric PTO single thin film. This epitaxial BTO/PTO multilayer thin film exhibited an imprint phenomenon, in which the internal electric field was asymmetrically induced and the ferroelectric hysteresis loop was shifted. Owing to this imprint phenomenon, a large difference occurred between the two coercive electric fields of the ferroelectric hysteresis loop. Because the coercive electric field was reduced in one direction, a relatively small switching voltage was required to form ferroelectric polarization nanobits in a local region and the size of the switched nanobits was minimized. This behavior can be utilized as the basis for developing high-density ferroelectric-based storage media.

Electrostatic coupling-driven dielectric enhancement of PZT/BTO multilayer thin films

In this study, PbZr0.52Ti0.48O3/BaTiO3 (PZT/BTO) multilayers with varying layer fractions were deposited on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si substrates by sol–gel process. The films were characterized by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The result shows that there exists a dielectric enhancement when the BTO layer fraction x is around 0.5, and at this fraction, the dielectric constant of PZT/BTO is 590 at 100 kHz, which is far more than that of monolithic PZT or BTO films (478 and 284, respectively). The thermodynamic analysis shows that the measured dielectric constant is close to the simulation values when x closes to 0.5; otherwise it fit the values caculated by series connection. The result indicates that the internal field resulting from the polarization mismatch between two ferroelectric layers contributes to the enhancement of PZT/BTO heterogeneous thin films.

Structure, dielectrical properties and capacitance properties of Ba0.3Sr0.7Zr0.18Ti0.82O3/BaTiO3 hetero-structure thin films with different BTO layer thicknesses

Ba0.3Sr0.7Zr0.18Ti0.82O3/BaTiO3 (BSZT/BTO) films containing 70–640 nm BTO layers and pure BaTiO3 film were deposited on Pt(111)/Ti/SiO2/Si substrate using radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering. The effect of the BTO layer thickness on the structure and electrical properties of the resulting BSZT/BTO films was investigated by x-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) as well as dielectrical tests. The BTO layer thickness significantly affected the structure and, as a result, the electrical properties of the corresponding BTO/BSZT thin films. Thin films containing 190 nm BSZT layer and 70–640 nm BTO films demonstrated gradually improved crystallinity as the BTO layer thickness increased. Additionally, the (110) crystalline orientations of these films were more evident as the BTO layer thickness increased, which also resulted in improved electrical properties. When the thickness of BTO film was 640 nm, the dielectric constant, dielectric loss, and leakage current density of the BSZT/BTO composite thin film were 139, 0.00816 at 1 MHz, and 1.36 × 10−6 A cm−2 at 40 V, respectively. The same values for 680 nm thick pure BTO film were 147, 0.02197 at 1 MHz, and 7.63 × 10−6 A cm−2 at 40 V, respectively. Thus, BSZT/BTO hetero-structured film with a 640 nm BTO possessed lower dielectric loss and six times smaller leakage current than pure BTO film. The reduction of dielectric loss and leakage current will improve the quality of the devices containing BTO films, which is advantageous for their wide-spread practical applications. Meanwhile, the relationship between the thickness of BTO layer and capacitance is explored, and the dielectric constant of BSZT buffer layer is calculated.

Mid-infrared frequency doubling using strip-loaded silicon nitride on epitaxial barium titanate thin film waveguides.

Broadband mid-infrared (mid-IR) frequency doubling was demonstrated using nonlinear barium titanate (BTO) thin films. The device has a strip-loaded waveguide structure consisting of top silicon nitride (SiN) strips and an underneath BTO guiding layer. The epitaxial BTO was deposited on a strontium titanate (STO) substrate by pulsed-laser deposition. Through a SiN grating coupler, the pumping mid-IR light at wavelength λ=3.30-3.45µm was coupled into the nonlinear BTO layer, where the spectrum of the near-infrared (NIR) second-harmonic generation was characterized. The developed BTO waveguides provide a platform for mid-IR nonlinear integrated photonics and on-chip quantum optics.

Application of Perovskite Layer to Rotor for Enhanced Stator-Rotor Capacitance for PMSM Shaft Voltage Reduction

Adjustable speed drives use Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) to switch DC-bus voltage for the synthesis of three-phase voltages to provide power to the permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM). This switching action produces very short rise and fall times and Common Mode Voltage (CMV) in the motor winding, exciting the parasitic capacitances inherent to the motor geometry. These parasitic capacitances give rise to shaft voltage due to a voltage divider action. Therefore, in this paper, first, motor parasitic capacitances and voltage divider action is explained. Second, the Barium Titanate (BTO) layer is coated onto the rotor to enhance stator-to-rotor compound capacitance and a simulation is performed showing the dependence of the shaft voltage on the permittivity of the perovskite (BTO) layer. The rotor BTO layer reduces the bearing voltage ratio as well. Third, experimental results are presented showing effectiveness of the application of the BTO layer to rotor and reduction of shaft voltage of the motor in anticipation to mitigate the damaging electric discharge machining (EDM) bearing currents. Likewise, the experiment shows that the magnetic design of the motor is not affected by the BTO layer to rotor.

Dielectric breakdown in epitaxial BaTiO3 thin films

In this work, thin epitaxial layers of dielectric barium titanate (BaTiO3 or BTO) were grown on Nb-doped strontium titanate (001) substrates using either molecular beam epitaxy or atomic layer deposition and then electrically stressed to the point of breakdown. The BTO layer thicknesses were in the range of 20–60 nm, and typical breakdown fields were in the range of 1.5–3.0 MV/cm. Electron microscopy and electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) were used to provide information about the degradation mechanism. High-resolution imaging revealed widespread structural damage in the BTO films after breakdown had occurred, with substantial polycrystallinity as well as amorphous regions. EELS analysis of the stressed films showed characteristic signatures of valence change in the Ti L23 EELS spectra associated with the accumulation of oxygen vacancies. Stressed heterostructures that had been patterned by electron lithography showed similar trends, including degraded crystallinity as well as oxygen loss.

Structural and electronic properties of two-dimensional freestanding BaTiO3/SrTiO3 heterostructures

The successful preparation of the freestanding perovskite materials down to the monolayer limit [Ji et al., Nature (London) 570, 87 (2019)] provided the opportunity to make the two-dimensional (2D) oxide and heterostructure, which could be significantly distinctive from the conventional oxide superlattices and other 2D van der Waals heterostructures. By stacking one unit-cell $\mathrm{BaTi}{\mathrm{O}}_{3}$ (BTO) and one unit-cell $\mathrm{SrTi}{\mathrm{O}}_{3}$ (STO) on top of each other, we constructed two isolated bilayers of the 2D heterostructure systems. From our density functional theory simulation, their ground states exhibit an in-plane ferroelectricity in both BTO layer and STO layer, while the antiferrodistortive mode of the STO layer is totally suppressed. These two systems show band gaps in the range of 2--2.5 eV (by using HSE06), which are smaller than their monolayer and bulk phases. The layer arrangement strongly influences their electronic properties. We reveal that they adopt the type-II electronic band alignment. The tensile biaxial strain can strongly promote the ferroelectricity and increase the band gaps of these systems. Our results will contribute to the further understanding of layered materials based on the transition metal oxide perovskites and developing relevant experimental devices.

BaTiO3/LaSrMnO3 Heterostructure Grown on Sapphire for Ferroelectric Tunneling Junctions

BaTiO3/LaSrMnO3 (BTO/LSMO) structures with a ferroelectric layer thickness of 10 nm have been formed on r-cut sapphire substrate by means of high-frequency magnetron sputtering. Investigations of the sample structure showed the presence of a crystalline phase, while measurements of electrical properties revealed piezoelectric response of the BTO films. The study of local current–voltage characteristics showed dependence of the sample resistance on the prehistory of voltage application as determined by ferroelectric hysteresis of the BTO layer.

Гетероструктура BaTiO-=SUB=-3-=/SUB=-/LaSrMnO-=SUB=-3-=/SUB=- на сапфире для сегнетоэлектрических туннельных переходов

AbstractBaTiO_3/LaSrMnO_3 (BTO/LSMO) structures with a ferroelectric layer thickness of 10 nm have been formed on r -cut sapphire substrate by means of high-frequency magnetron sputtering. Investigations of the sample structure showed the presence of a crystalline phase, while measurements of electrical properties revealed piezoelectric response of the BTO films. The study of local current–voltage characteristics showed dependence of the sample resistance on the prehistory of voltage application as determined by ferroelectric hysteresis of the BTO layer.

Fabrication and electromagnetic wave absorption property of quartz ceramics with a gradient distribution of BaTiO3

Quartz ceramics with a uniform/gradient distribution of BaTiO3 (U/G–SO–BTO) are fabricated by cold pressing a powder blend with BTO followed by sintering and using a combined technique of spreading the powder blends with gradually increased BTO layer–by–layer and sintering. The electromagnetic wave absorption properties of these two ceramics are studied in detail. For U–SO–BTO samples, the primary electromagnetic reflection is strong due to the aggravated impedance mismatch at their surfaces. The electromagnetic wave reflectivity of U–SO–BTO could only reach −7.0 dB when the sample thickness is 6 mm and the BTO content is 8.0 wt%, and it decreases slightly to −8.1 dB when the sample thickness is increased to 10.0 mm and the BTO content is decreased to 5.0 wt% simultaneously. For G–SO–BTO samples, electromagnetic waves could enter with little reflection due to the weak surface impedance mismatch, and the electromagnetic waves entering these samples could propagate forward while being absorbed gradually with little reflection because of the weak impedance mismatch at the interfaces. The G–SO–BTO samples are promising excellent electromagnetic absorbing materials because their electromagnetic wave reflectivity could reach a level lower than −12.0 dB and could decrease further from –12.2 to −13.1 dB as the layer thickness increases from 1.0 to 2.0 mm.

Cross-Correlation between Strain, Ferroelectricity, and Ferromagnetism in Epitaxial Multiferroic CoFe2O4/BaTiO3 Heterostructures.

Multiferroic biphase systems with robust ferromagnetic and ferroelectric response at room temperature would be ideally suitable for voltage-controlled nonvolatile memories. Understanding the role of strain and charges at interfaces is central for an accurate control of the ferroelectricity as well as of the ferromagnetism. In this paper, we probe the relationship between the strain and the ferromagnetic/ferroelectric properties in the layered CoFe2O4/BaTiO3 (CFO/BTO) model system. For this purpose, ultrathin epitaxial bilayers, ranging from highly strained to fully relaxed, were grown by molecular beam epitaxy on Nb:SrTiO3(001). The lattice characteristics, determined by X-ray diffraction, evidence a non-intuitive cross-correlation: the strain in the bottom BTO layer depends on the thickness of the top CFO layer and vice versa. Plastic deformation participates in the relaxation process through dislocations at both interfaces, revealed by electron microscopy. Importantly, the switching of the BTO ferroelectric polarization, probed by piezoresponse force microscopy, is found dependent on the CFO thickness: the larger is the latter, the easiest is the BTO switching. In the thinnest thickness regime, the tetragonality of BTO and CFO has a strong impact on the 3d electronic levels of the different cations, which were probed by X-ray linear dichroism. The quantitative determination of the nature and repartition of the magnetic ions in CFO, as well as of their magnetic moments, has been carried out by X-ray magnetic circular dichroism, with the support of multiplet calculations. While bulklike ferrimagnetism is found for 5-15 nm thick CFO layers with a magnetization resulting as expected from the Co2+ ions alone, important changes occur at the interface with BTO over a thickness of 2-3 nm because of the formation of Fe2+ and Co3+ ions. This oxidoreduction process at the interface has strong implications concerning the mechanisms of polarity compensation and coupling in multiferroic heterostructures.

The Demonstration of High-Performance Multilayer BaTiO₃/BiFeO₃ Stack MIM Capacitors

Multilayer BaTiO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sub> /BiFeO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sub> (BTO/BFO) stack structures were prepared on the Pt/TiO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> /SiO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> /Si (100) substrate via highly accurate magnetron sputtering process. The cubic to the tetragonal phase transition of BTO was confirmed by both the X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy after the process of rapid thermal anneal. An ~74.1% increase of the relative permittivity was observed with the increasing thickness of BFO in the metal-insulator-metal capacitor. On the other hand, we also demonstrate that the leakage current density and the relative permittivity are found to have 20-50 times reduction and 26.6% improvement, respectively, with the additional cap of the BTO layer.

Quantitative characterization of spin-orbit torques in Pt/Co/Pt/Co/Ta/BTO heterostructures due to the magnetization azimuthal angle dependence

Substantial understanding of spin-orbit interactions in heavy-metal (HM)/ferromagnet (FM) heterostructures is crucial in developing spin-orbit torque (SOT) spintronics devices utilizing spin Hall and Rashba effects. Though the study of SOT effective field dependence on the out-of-plane magnetization angle has been relatively extensive, the understanding of in-plane magnetization angle dependence remains unknown. Here, we analytically propose a method to compute the SOT effective fields as a function of the in-plane magnetization angle using the harmonic Hall technique in perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) structures. Two different samples with PMA, a $\mathrm{Pt}\text{/}\mathrm{Co}\text{/}\mathrm{Pt}\text{/}\mathrm{Co}\text{/}\mathrm{Ta}\text{/}\mathrm{BaTi}{\mathrm{O}}_{3}$ (BTO) test sample and a Pt/Co/Pt/Co/Ta reference sample, are studied using the derived formula. Our measurements reveal that only the dampinglike field of the test sample with a BTO capping layer exhibits an in-plane magnetization angle dependence, while no angular dependence is found in the reference sample. The presence of the BTO layer in the test sample, which gives rise to a Rashba effect at the interface, is ascribed as the source of the angular dependence of the dampinglike field.

Monolithic Mid-Infrared Integrated Photonics Using Silicon-on-Epitaxial Barium Titanate Thin Films.

Broadband mid-infrared (mid-IR) photonic circuits that integrate silicon waveguides and epitaxial barium titanate (BTO) thin films are demonstrated using the complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor process. The epitaxial BTO thin films are grown on lanthanum aluminate (LAO) substrates by the pulsed laser deposition technique, wherein a broad infrared transmittance between λ = 2.5 and 7 μm is observed. The optical waveguiding direction is defined by the high-refractive-index amorphous Si (a-Si) ridge structure developed on the BTO layer. Our waveguides show a sharp fundamental mode over the broad mid-IR spectrum, whereas its optical field distribution between the a-Si and BTO layers can be modified by varying the height of the a-Si ridge. With the advantages of broad mid-IR transparency and the intrinsic electro-optic properties, our monolithic Si on a ferroelectric BTO platform will enable tunable mid-IR microphotonics that are desired for high-speed optical logic gates and chip-scale biochemical sensors.

Correlation between magnetoelectric coupling effect and dielectric properties of La0.7Sr0.3MnO3/BaTiO3 bilayer heterostructure

By using pulsed laser deposition, the epitaxial La0.7Sr0.3MnO3/BaTiO3 (LSMO/BTO) bilayer heterostructures were grown onto various substrates. The variation in ME voltage coefficient (αE) as a function of frequency was found to exhibit a monotonous increasing tendency. In the low frequency range, the value of αE increased sharply, while it increased slightly in high frequency range. Furthermore, the value of relative dielectric constant (εr) for BTO layer was found to decrease rapidly at first, and then it slowly increased in high frequency range. It was experimentally proved a well-known relation between the ME coupling and dielectric properties, which shown that the frequency dependence of ME voltage coefficient could be calculated and predicted by the dielectric constant curves of corresponding ferroelectric layer.

In-plane strain modulated magnetization and magnetoelectric effect in La0.7Sr0.3MnO3-BaTiO3 and La0.7Sr0.3MnO3-BaTiO3-BiFeO3 multilayer's

La0.7Sr0.3MnO3-BaTiO3(LSMO/BTO) and La0.7Sr0.3MnO3-BaTiO3-BiFeO3 (LSMO/BTO/BFO) multilayer thin films are deposited on STO (100) substrate by pulsed laser deposition. In-plane lattice mismatch induced strain is thoroughly investigated with the conclusion, that upper BTO layer of bilayer resides in high strained state, while upper BFO layer of trilayer remains under partially relaxed state. Significantly higher value (∼20) of dielectric constant is observed for LSMO/BTO bilayer in compliance with its higher (12.28 μC/cm2) in-plane strain induced interfacial polarization, which exceeds (2.06 μC/cm2), the observed value of polarization for LSMO/BTO/BFO trilayer. In LSMO/BTO bilayer, antiferromagnetic LSMO phase coexists due to the existence of strong tensile strain between the interfaces, which causes the reduction in value of saturation magnetization up to 50.76 emu/cm3 in comparison to 145.01 emu/cm3 for LSMO/BTO/BFO trilayer. The maximum value of linear magnetoelectric coefficient (α31) observed for LSMO/BTO bilayer is 24.77 mV/cm-Oe, which is higher in comparison to 19.54 mV/cm-Oe for LSMO/BTO/BFO trilayer, where the upper layer undergoes less strain in comparison to the bilayer.

Temperature dependence of magnetoelectric coupling in La0.7Sr0.3MnO3/BaTiO3 layered heterostructure with various volume fraction

The epitaxial La0.7Sr0.3MnO3/BaTiO3 (LSMO/BTO) layered heterostructures were grown onto (001) oriented LaAlO3 single-crystal substrate by pulsed laser deposition. Temperature dependence of the magnetoelectric (ME) voltage coefficient (αE) was studied for the heterostructures over temperature range of −20–85°C (253.15–358.15K). The values of αE for all of the samples exhibit a monotonous decreasing tendency with increasing temperature. Moreover, the variation in ME voltage coefficient as a function of temperature was found to be significantly dependent on the volume fraction of BTO layer. Our results showed that maximum number of the volume fraction of BTO layer can provide more stable ME voltage coefficient in wide temperature range, due to the competition of the effects of temperature influenced piezoelectricity, magnetostriction, and electrical transport property of the constituents. This finding could provide an available method for promote miniaturization of the ME heterostructure devices in view of temperature stability.