Preparation and characterisation of compositionally graded Ba x Sr 1-x TiO 3 thin films

BaxSr1-xTiO3 thin films with a compositional gradient of x=0.3 to 1 (in 0.1 mole fraction increments) were fabricated on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si substrates using a modified sol–gel technique. The graded film crystallised in a perovskite structure and consists of a uniform microstructure with comparatively larger grains. The room-temperature relative dielectric constant (er) and dielectric loss (cosδ) at 100 kHz were found to be 305 and 0.03 respectively. Dielectric peaks were not observed in the temperature range from -20 °C to 120 °C. The dielectric constant and dielectric loss were almost independent of temperature. Polarisation–electric field measurements at room temperature revealed a saturated but slim hysteresis loop with a remanent polarisation (Pr) of 0.6 μC/cm2 and a coercive field (Ec) of 2.4 kV/mm. The graded film behaves as a stack of BaxSr1-xTiO3 capacitors connected in series and hence the dielectric Curie peaks are removed.