Abstract

Fatigue-free Bi3.2Sm0.8Ti3O12 ferroelectric thin films were prepared on p-Si(100) substrate using a sol-gel deposition process. The formation and orientation of thin films were studied upon annealing conditions with XRD and SEM. Experiment results indicate that after preannealing at 400°C for 10 min, annealing at 700°C resulted in formation of strong a-axis oriented films. The orientation degree, I(200)/I(117), remarkably increases from 1.033 to 1.76 and 6.49 with increasing annealing time from 3 to 10 and 15 min respectively. However, only (117)-oriented films were produced by annealing films at 900°C for 3 min without the preannealing.

Keywords: Bi3.2Sm0.8Ti3O12 film, Sol-gel process, grain size, microstructure, preannealing, orientation