Processing and Properties of Ferroelectric Ag(Ta,Nb)O3 Thin Films

Sammanfattning: High tunability and low loss tangent of ferroelectric thinfilms offer unique opportunity for the development of variousmicrowave devices. Silver tantalate niobate, which showsexcellent microwave properties, was selected for this study.Ag(Ta,Nb)O3(ATN) showed week dielectric dispersion in a widefrequency range from 1 kHz up to 100 GHz, negligible losses upto 30 GHz, and ease to tailor paraelectric state in a widetemperature range by Ta:Nb ratio.This thesis is mainly based on the synthesis andcharacterization of niobate ferroelectric ATN thin films. Thinfilms for various measurements were prepared by pulsed laserdeposition and rf-magnetron sputtering techniques.X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern show that ATN/Pt80Ir20films have been found to be (001) preferentiallyoriented, while the epitaxial quality of ATN/LaAlO3heterostructures have been ascertained. Dielectricproperties were analyzed by measuring the relationship betweendielectric permittivity and frequency as well as dielectricpermittivity and temperature. Reliable tracing of theferroelectric hysteresis polarization versus electric loopsindicate the ferroelectric state in ATN films at temperaturebelow 125 K and yields the remanant polarization of 0.4µC/cm2@ 77 K.The fundamental current-voltage behavior in Ag(Ta,Nb)O3ferroelectric films was measured usingMe/Ag(Ta,Nb)O3/Pt80Ir20, Me = Pd, Au, Cr, and Al, vertical capacitivecell structures with different top electrodes. Various kinds ofconduction mechanisms such as Schottky emission, Poole-Frenkel,Fowler-Nordheim, and ionic conduction were classified.Finally, by fabricating interdigital capacitors on the oxidesubstrates, the characteristics and performances of Ag(Ta,Nb)O3varactors were examined. Au/Cr/ATN/LaAlO3interdigital capacitors exhibited loss tangent aslow as 0.0033 @ 1 MHz, weak frequency dispersion of 5.8 % in 1kHz to 1 MHz range, tunability as high as 16.4 %,K-factor (tunability/tan?) higher than 48.