Restoration of perovskite phase in the top layer of thin BTO film by plasma treatment and annealing. (7th February 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sengupta, Subhamita; Ghatak, Ankita; Sett, Shaili; Sreemany, Monjoy; Bysakh, Sandip; Ghosh, Barnali; Raychaudhuri, A K
• Is Part Of: Journal of physics. Volume 51:Number 8(2018)
• Publication Date: 2018-02-07
• Subjects: thin film -- surface engineering -- x-ray photo electron spectroscopy -- grazing incidence x-ray diffraction study -- dielectric and ferroelectric study; Physics -- Periodicals; 530
• DOI: 10.1088/1361-6463/aaa7dd
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0022-3727

Abstract

Abstract: We report a simple method to restore the perovskite phase in the top surface/sub-surface region of a thin film (~100 nm) of barium titanate (BTO) fabricated by pulsed laser deposition on a platinized silicon surface and thus enhance its dielectric and ferroelectric properties. Phase evolution, surface morphology with local chemical composition of as-grown BTO films have been studied as a function of laser fluence. Investigations using x-ray diffraction, grazing-angle incidence x-ray diffraction and depth resolved x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy show that even after achieving a good phase formation there can be a presence of non-perovskite TiO2 phase at the surface and subsurface in such films that degrades its dielectric and ferroelectric response. The restoration of the degraded top layer was done by a combination of low energy Ar plasma treatment followed by an annealing process that enhances Ba content.