Bottom-up fabrication and piezoelectric properties of CaBi4Ti4O15 micro-plateaus

CaBi4Ti4O15 (CBTi144) micro-plateaus were fabricated on Si wafers and Pt foils using a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) and a complex metal alkoxide solution. The micro-plateaus are delineated by metal masks, which are used for shadowing against the ultraviolet (UV) irradiation for decomposition of SAM to make the surface hydrophilic. The micro-plateaus crystallized to a ferroelectric phase with random orientation. The crystallization depended on the SAM-derived ultra thin layers at the surface of the substrates. The primitive PFM measurements without any top electrodes confirmed that the micro-plateaus exhibited the piezoresponse behaviors. The piezoelectric constant, d33, had some distribution, and the maximum d33 was confirmed as about 45 pm/V, which is identical to the d33 of the polar-axis oriented CBTi144 thin films.