Sol–gel derived barium strontium titanate thin films using a highly diluted precursor solution

Among lead-free ferroelectric materials, Barium Strontium Titanate (BST) has interesting ferroelectric, pyroelectric, piezoelectric, and energy-harvesting properties. This material can be advantageously solution-deposited. There is a need for homogeneous and dense films with optimized electrical properties. BST thin films are elaborated with a highly diluted precursor solution of less than 0.05 M. The electric properties are correlated with the morphology and structure of the films as a function of precursor solution dilution. The film growth is columnar with a tetragonal perovskite structure. As the dilution increases, the roughness of the top surface and of the columns decreases, facilitating grain coalescence. In addition, the permittivity of the grains and of the grain boundaries decreases. The highest dielectric strength (400 kV/cm) is obtained for the sample elaborated with the most diluted precursor solution of 0.008 M. For a given polarization, the necessary poling electric field decreases by a factor 2.3 as dilution increases by a factor 4. Finally, hysteresis loops are obtained with increasing saturation and remnant polarizations as the dilution increases. The saturation polarization is approximately doubled as the solution dilution is multiplied by four. To conclude, BST films elaborated with highly diluted solutions have enhanced ferroelectric properties.