Reduced leakage current and enhanced piezoelectricity of BNT-BT-BMO thin films

BiMeO3 (where Me denotes a transition metal) is often used as a chemical modifier to form the Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3-based solid solutions and to improve the electromechanical properties of the materials. In this study, BiMnO3 was selected as a chemical modifier, and (1 - x)(0.94Bi(0.5)Na(0.5)TiO(3)-0.06BaTiO(3))-xBiMnO(3) thin films with x = 0, 0.005, 0.01, and 0.015 were fabricated using the metal organic decomposition method to study the contributions of the third end-member BiMnO3 to the reduction in the leakage current and the enhancement of the piezoelectric properties of Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3-BaTiO3 thin films. Thin films with 1 mol% BiMnO3 exhibit a lower leakage current, and a better piezoelectricity and ferroelectricity, whose S-max/E-max, P-max, 2E(c), and epsilon(r) are 100.4 pm/V, 48.0 mu C/cm(2), 54.9 kV/cm, and 942, respectively.