Enhanced ferroelectric properties of vanadium doped bismuth titanate (BTV) thin films grown by pulsed laser ablation technique

Bi3.99Ti2.97V0.03O12 (BTV) thin films were grown by pulsed laser deposition at substrate temperatures ranging between 650 and 750degreesC. The structural phase, and orientation of the deposited films were investigated in order to understand the effect of the deposition parameters on the properties of the BTV films. As the Substrate temperature was increased to 700degreesC, the films started showing a tendency of assuming a c-axis preferred orientation, while at lower temperatures polycrystalline films were formed. The Au/BTV/Pt capacitor showed an interesting dependence of the remnant polarization (P-r) as well as dc leakage current 2 values on the growth temperature. The film deposited at 675degreesC showed a very large 2P(r) of 42 muC cm(-2), which is the largest for BTV thin films among the values reported so far. (C) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.