Electric Properties of Bi_3.25Nd_0.75Ti₃O₁₂–BiFeO₃ Composite Thin Films Derived by a Sol–Gel Process

Abstract

Ferroelectric Bi_3.25Nd_0.75Ti₃O₁₂ (BNT), BiFeO₃ (BFO) and Bi_3.25Nd_0.75Ti₃O₁₂-BiFeO₃ (BNT-BFO) composite thin films were deposited onto Pt/Ti/SiO₂/Si(100) substrates using the sol–gel process. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to identify the crystal structure, the surface and cross-section morphology of the deposited ferroelectric thin films. Structure evolution and ferroelectric properties of the as prepared thin films annealed under 750 °C were studied in detail. It is found that the leakage current of the entire thin film was effectively reduced by preparing BNT and BFO composite thin films with appropriate thickness ratios to achieve their full advantages, and consequently, significantly improve the ferroelectric properties of the composite thin films.

Keywords:

• Ferroelectric properties
• composite thin films
• performance improvement

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province, China (Grant No. 2018JJ2080), Research Foundation of Education Bureau of Hunan Province, China (Grant No. 19A116), NNSF of China (Grant No. 51502087), and the Outstanding youth Project of Scientific Research Fund of Hunan Provincial Education Department (Grant No. 15B056).