Structural comparative study by RBS and XPD of stoichiometric and Bi-deficient SrBi2Nb2O9 thin films epitaxially grown on (100)SrTiO3

Epitaxially grown ferroelectric thin films for agile devices

“…High quality c-axis oriented epitaxial SBN thin films are currently grown, especially on the well-matched (001)SrTiO 3 perovskite substrate [83,102,103,109,110]. Similar results have also been reported on (001)LaAlO 3 and (001) LaAlO 3 -Sr 2 AlTaO 6 [83].…”

“…In the example of SBN, the Bi under-stoichiometry results, when the film is epitaxially grown on a well-matched substrate like (100)SrTiO 3 , in the epitaxial intergrowth of two phases corresponding to the terms m ¼ 2 and m ¼ 3 in the Aurivillius general formula, as clearly evidenced by X-ray diffraction analysis and modeling [101], RBS channeling measurements and XPD [102] as well as direct observation by transmission electron microscopy on cross sections [103]. Indeed, the m ¼ 3 term does not exists in the bulk, as mentioned above, and is stabilized only when sandwiched between two m ¼ 2 layers.…”