Factors controlling the a-axis orientation of strontium bismuth tantalate thin films fabricated by chemical solution deposition

The a-axis orientation of strontium bismuth tantalate (SBT) thin films on Pt/TiOx/SiO2/Si substrates was found to be controlled by the atomic composition of the precursor solution, heating rate for thermal annealing, and thickness of the single-annealed layer of chemical solution deposition. Under optimized conditions, an increase in the thickness of the total film caused the orientation to change from random to a-axis preferred. It was considered that anisotropic growth is available for preparing a-axis preferentially oriented films. The SBT thin film, whose relative intensity of the (200) peak [I(200)/I(115)] was 2.3, had a remanent polarization (2P(r)) value of 30.4 muC/cm(2). (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.