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Structural, electrical, and optical properties of sol-gel-derived zirconium-doped barium titanate thin films on transparent conductive substrates

  • Original Paper: Sol-gel and hybrid materials for dielectric, electronic, magnetic and ferroelectric applications
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Abstract

Barium zirconium titanate (Ba(Zr x Ti1−x)O3, BZT) super smooth thin films are synthesized through modified sol-gel dip coating route on fluorine-doped tin oxide substrates with a suitably low calcination temperature. The Fourier tranformed infrared spectroscopy proves that impurities and starting materials are completely removed in the calcination process. Crystallographic phases of the samples are identified by the X-ray diffractometry and confirms that all samples are crystallized into a single perovskite phase. Introducing zirconium into the structure causes a reduction in dielectric constant of barium titanate. The optical properties of the films are also investigated. The results indicate that all samples are highly transparent and zirconium reduces the absorption coefficient. Moreover, the band gap energy of barium titanate increases when doped with zirconium and the highest band gap energy of about 3.71 eV along with the lowest dielectric constant of 850 at frequency of 100 kHz are obtained in 15 at.% zirconium-doped sample.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, P.O. Box 14395-553, Iran

    Aryan Kheyrdan, Hossein Abdizadeh, Amid Shakeri & Mohammad Reza Golobostanfard

  2. Center of Excellence for High Performance Materials, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

    Hossein Abdizadeh

Authors
  1. Aryan Kheyrdan
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  2. Hossein Abdizadeh
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  3. Amid Shakeri
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  4. Mohammad Reza Golobostanfard
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Correspondence to Mohammad Reza Golobostanfard.

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Highlights

  • Barium titanate is fully crystallized into a single phase at a low temperature of 650 °C.

  • Surface of the films are extremely smooth with root mean square roughness of 0.6 nm.

  • Dielectric constant of the BZT15 is lower than barium titanate (BT), while dielectric constant of BZT20 is far higher than BT.

  • Band gap energy of barium zirconium titanate (BZT) (3.71 eV in 15 at.% zirconium) is higher than of the BT (3.55 eV).

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Kheyrdan, A., Abdizadeh, H., Shakeri, A. et al. Structural, electrical, and optical properties of sol-gel-derived zirconium-doped barium titanate thin films on transparent conductive substrates. J Sol-Gel Sci Technol 86, 141–150 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10971-018-4610-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10971-018-4610-5

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