National Institute Of Materials Physics - Romania

Due to its low resistivity and excellent thermal stability, IrO2 has attracted attention as an alternative for electrode material in ferroelectric integrated circuit applications. Oriented growth of IrO2 electrode film was investigated with the goal to control the texture of the PZT thin film. IrO2 films were prepared by DC reactive sputtering. PZT film was prepared by RF magnetron sputtering single target deposition method. The whole layer stack was grown onto amorphous thermal oxide of a silicon wafer. The results indicate that IrO2 thin film was preferentially (200) oriented when a TiO2 seeding layer was used. The orientation relationships along the whole PZT(111)/IrO2(200)/TiO2(200)/Ti structure was discussed.

Cotton/polyester woven fabrics were functionalized with ZnO thin films or nanoparticles by pulsed laser deposition, using a KrF* excimer laser source. Depending on the number of applied laser pulses, well-separated nanoparticles (for 10 pulses) or compact thin films (for 100 pulses) were deposited. The synthesized nanostructures were evaluated morphologically by scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy, physico-chemically by x-ray diffraction and functionally by the contact angle method. By modifying the ambient gas nature and pressure in the deposition chamber, hydrophilic or hydrophobic surfaces were obtained. When using an oxygen flux, both the deposited thin films and nanoparticles were hydrophilic. After deposition in vacuum, the nanoparticles were hydrophobic, but the thin films were super-hydrophobic. This radical modification of wetting behavior was assigned to the differences in microstructure features and surface electrical charging in the two cases. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3639297]

The difficulties in synthesizing phase pure BaTiO3 doped-(Na0.5Bi0.5)TiO3 are known. In this work, we reporting the optimized pulsed laser deposition (PLD) conditions for obtaining pure phase 0.92(Na0.5Bi0.5)TiO3-0.08BaTiO(3), (BNT-BT0.08), thin films. Dielectric, ferroelectric and piezoelectric properties of BNT-BT0.08, thin films deposited by PLD on Pt/TiO2/SiO2/Si substrates are investigated in this paper. Perovskite structure of BNT-BT0.08 thin films with random orientation of nanocrystallites has been obtained by deposition at 600 degrees C. The relative dielectric constant and loss tangent at 100 kHz, of BNT-BT0.08 thin film with 530 nm thickness, were 820 and 0.13, respectively. Ferroelectric hysteresis measurements indicated a remnant polarization value of 22 mu C/cm(2) and a coercive field of 120 kV/cm. The piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) data showed that most of the grains seem to be constituted of single ferroelectric domain. The as-deposited BNT-BT0.08 thin film is ferroelectric at the nanoscale level and piezoelectric. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Thin films of Mg (x) Zn1-x O and Mg (x) Zn1-x O doped with nitrogen were deposited by Radio Frequency plasma beam assisted Pulsed Laser Deposition (RF-PLD) in oxygen or oxygen-nitrogen discharge with different nitrogen/oxygen ratios. A Nd:YAG laser working at a wavelength of 266 nm, having a 10 Hz repetition rate was used for the depositions. The energy density of the incident beam was 3 J/cm(2) and the RF power was set to 100 W for all the samples. X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and Spectroscopic Ellipsometry (SE) were employed to investigate the samples. The degree of crystallinity is fount to decrease with increasing the Mg concentration, while the solubility of Mg in ZnO increases by 30% in the N-doped Mg (x) Zn1-x O thin films grown by RF-PLD. Segregation of MgO phase at a Mg concentration of 30% for Mg (x) Zn1-x O thin film is detected both by XRD and SE. The band gap of the samples increases from 3.37 up to 3.57 eV with increasing the Mg concentration and the nitrogen/oxygen ratio for each Mg concentration. A dependence of the dielectric function (refractive index) on both stoichiometry and degree of crystalinity is also found, the refractive index having values between 1.7 and 2 in visible spectral range.

0.89(Na0.5Bi0.5)TiO3-0.11BaTiO(3), (BNT-BT0.11) thin film was fabricated by sol-gel/spin coating process, on platinized silicon wafer. Perovskite structure with random orientation of crystallites has been obtained at 700 A degrees C. Piezoelectric activity of BNT-BT0.11 thin film was detected using piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM). Effective piezoelectric coefficient d (33eff) of such film, recorded at 5 V applied dc voltage, was similar to 29 pm/V, which is similar to other BNT-BT (x) thin films. The complex refractive index and dielectric function of BNT-BT0.11 thin films were also investigated. The high leakage current density significantly influences the dielectric, ferroelectric, and piezoelectric properties of the BNT-BT0.11 films.

It is shown that the short-circuit photocurrent measured under illumination in Pb(Zr,Ti)O-3 epitaxial films is strongly dependent on the metal used as the top electrode. The magnitude of the photocurrent varies by more than 2 orders of magnitude from Pt (largest signal) to Al (smallest signal). The differences are for both directions of polarization. The imprint is also dependent on the top metal electrode, with a direct effect on the shape of the spectral distribution. The results support the hypothesis that the origin of the photovoltaic effect in ferroelectric thin films is different from that of the anomalous photovoltaic effect observed in bulk ceramics and single crystals. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3624738]

The results of the electric and magnetic measurements performed on PbZr0.2Ti0.8O3-BiFeO3 symmetric structures, deposited on Pt/Si wafers, were compared for different number of layers in order to analyse the effect of interfaces over the macroscopic properties. It was found that the shape and magnitude of the capacitance-voltage characteristic, as well as the shape and parameters of the ferroelectric and magnetic hysteresis, depend on the number of interfaces in the intended multilayer structure. A temperature induced gradual transition from a magnetically disordered spin glass like phase of low temperature to an uncompensated antiferromagnetic phase at room temperature takes place in the BiFeO3 films, under low applied magnetic fields. A partial ferromagnetic like order can be obtained at low temperatures by increasing the field. The observed changes in the electric and magnetic behaviour of the systems were related to an increased degree of disorder for electric dipoles and magnetic moments, due to the increased number of layers and crystallization treatments. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The paper focuses on the utilization of radiofrequency discharges at intermediate pressures for plasma removal of carbon residuals or layers from narrow gaps and channels. It is shown that by proper handling of the discharge power and pressure it is possible to control the development of plasma inside narrow gaps, in the proximity of surfaces to be cleaned. The discharge operation inside gaps having the width in the range 0.6-2 mm was demonstrated. The cleaning effectiveness is exemplified for castellated surfaces having rectangular gaps coated with hydrogenated amorphous carbon layers. Cleaning of large surfaces can be approached with a movable "plasma shower" type device. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

CeO2 films were prepared from solutions of different concentrations (0.05-1.0 M) on textured Ni substrates. Homogeneous nucleation and growth of CeO2 nanocrystals <8 nm occurs upon calcination at 350-500 degrees C. At the heating and sintering stage, the homogeneous growth is inhibited in favor of the development of grains with (0 0 1) texture. The grain growth normal to the film surface is well described by a stretched exponential function with a relaxation time of up to 60 min and with Kohlrausch exponent values of less than unity. The increase in grain size is accompanied by the relaxation of the microstrain. During the relaxation time, the grain coarsening is controlled by surface diffusion characterized by an activation energy as low as 0.6 eV. At the relaxation time, the surface morphology is strongly concentration dependent. The surface morphology changes from separated (agglomerated) grains to a continuous grain configuration as the concentration increases from 0.05 M to 0.8 M. After the relaxation time, both the grain size normal to the film surface and the lateral grain size continue to grow, and the grain configuration continues to change. These processes are concentration dependent. In the films with a nominal thickness >170 nm (>0.8 M), the transition to classical curvature-driven grain-growth kinetics is evident (at 1000 degrees C, below the literature value of 1100 degrees C). The decrease in the Kohlrausch exponent for these thick films suggests that the grain coarsening through grain boundary migration is responsible for the stretched regime of grain-size relaxation. (C) 2011 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Ferroelectric ceramics Ba0.6Sr0.4TiO3 (BST 40) were prepared, by solid-state reaction in the temperature range 1210-1450 degrees C. Maximum values of the ceramic densities were around 94% of their theoretical value. X-ray diffraction techniques (XRD) and scanning electron spectroscopy (SEM) were used to analyze the structure and the surface morphology of ceramics. Rounded, well defined or abnormal granular growth was observed in the SEM images, vs. sintering conditions and purity of the raw materials. In all samples, BST 40 ceramic is the major phase, but there are also present small amounts of secondary phases, as revealed in XRD diffraction patterns. Permittivity and dielectric loss measurements were performed in the temperature range - 150 to + 150 degrees C, and 150 Hz-5 MHz frequency values. Permittivity values rising from 1200 to 12,500, with increasing sintering temperatures, were recorded. Narrow and well defined transition peaks were noticed at higher sintering temperatures. Curie temperature was around 2 degrees C, for samples with the mentioned composition. Permittivity and losses vs. frequency show different behavior whether BST ceramics are in polar or non-polar state and with the distance toward phase transition. Microwave measurements performed at room temperature have shown lower values of permittivity, compared with similar data at low frequency, and dielectric losses lower than 1% at 0.7 GHz. The sintering conditions (temperatures, sintering time, etc.) and purity of the raw materials lead to important changes of transition temperatures in the polymorphic diagram, which we have built-for the other Ba1 - xSrxTiO(3) compositions (x = 0.25-0.90) sintered at 1260 degrees C for 2 h. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.