Phase transition behavior of highly (100) textured sol-gel-derived Ba0.5Sr0.5TiO3 thin films

We have investigated the relations between microstructure and dielectric properties in order to fabricate sol-gel-derived highly (100) oriented Ba0.5Sr0.5TiO3 (BST 50/50) thin films with properties comparable to those of the bulk material. For the first time, we were able to fabricate BST thin films which exhibited the orthorhombic-to-tetragonal transition in addition to the commonly observed tetragonal-to-cubic transition. We were successful in explaining the commonly observed degradation of the dielectric behavior of BST thin films, when compared to that of the bulk material, in terms of grain size, compositional inhomogeneity (measured in terms of Sr/Ba ratio) between the grain bulk and grain boundary, and mechanical stresses.