Dielectric properties of multilayered SrTiO3 thin films with graded oxygen vacancy concentration

SrTiO3 (STO) thin films were homo-epitaxially grown on Nb-doped STO substrates at varying oxygen pressures, and the effect of oxygen vacancy concentration on the dielectric properties of the STO thin films was studied and is presented herein. Although the STO thin films with low oxygen vacancy concentration demonstrated low zero-bias permittivity, low dielectric tunability, and high dielectric dissipation, the STO thin films, however, could withstand a large electric field. While the STO thin films with high oxygen vacancy concentration exhibited reduced dielectric loss and high dielectric tunability, they exhibited a low breakdown electric field. In order to make use of the respective advantages of the STO thin films with different oxygen vacancy concentrations, a trilayered structure was obtained by varying the oxygen pressure during deposition and combining one thin STO layer with large oxygen vacancy concentration sandwiched by two STO thin films with low oxygen vacancy concentration. The microstructure and dielectric properties of the trilayer were then studied. X-ray diffraction analysis indicated that the trilayer was a relaxed STO multilayer formed by two STO thin layers with different lattice parameters. An improved optimization of high tunability and low loss was achieved in the relaxed trilayer.