Growth and characterization of SrBi<inf>2</inf>Ta<inf>2</inf>O<inf>9</inf> thin films prepared by rapid thermal annealing

Abstract

The SrBi2Ta2O9 (SBT) thin films were prepared by metalorganic decomposition on Pt/TiO2/SiO2/Si substrates with rapid thermal annealing (RTA). The films were annealed at different temperature (T) for different time (t) to investigate the crystal growth of the films. The grain size distribution basically conforms to Gaussian distribution and the rate of nucleation is high with RTA. There are two steps in grain growth. First, grain size is proportion to t1/2 before 10s, then proportion to t1/2. The growth activity energy is about 29kJ/mol under 700°C and 81kJ/mol above 700°C. From the results mentioned above we can draw a conclusion that it is easier to grow larger SBT grains by increasing annealing temperature than by lengthening annealing time in RTA. © 2001 Taylor & Francis.