Effect of working pressure and annealing temperature on microstructure and surface chemical composition of barium strontium titanate films grown by pulsed laser deposition

Barium strontium titanate (BST) (Ba1-x Sr x TiO3) thin films have been extensively used in many dielectric devices such as dynamic random access memories (DRAMs). To optimize its characteristics, a microstructural control is essential. In this paper, Ba0.6Sr0.4TiO3 thin film has been deposited on the SiO2/Si substrate by the pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique at three different oxygen working pressures of 100, 220 and 350 mTorr. Then the deposited thin films at 100 mTorr oxygen pressure were annealed for 50 min in oxygen ambient at three different temperatures: 650, 720 and 800°C. The effect of oxygen working pressure during laser ablation and thermal treatment on the films was investigated by using X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis methods. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis was used to determine the surface chemical composition of the samples. The results indicate that the deposited BST film at low working pressure (100 mTorr) in PLD chamber shows a lower surface roughness than other working pressures (220 and 350 mTorr). The as-deposited films show an amorphous structure and would turn into polycrystalline structure at annealing temperature above 650°C. Increase of temperature would cause the formation of cubic and perovskite phases, improvement in crystalline peaks and also result in the decomposition of BST at high temperature (above 800°C). In addition, rising of temperature leads to the increase in size of grains and clusters. Therefore more roughness was found at higher temperatures as a result of a more heterogeneous growth and less tensions.