Sol-gel processed barium titanate thin films

Ferroelectric barium titanate (BaTiO3) thin films have been prepared by sol-gel technique from barium acetate [Ba(CH3COO)(2)] and titanium (IV) isopropoxied [Ti(CH3)(2)CHO)(4)] precursors. The as-grown films were found to be amorphous which crystallized to tetragonal phase after annealing at 700 degrees C for one hour in air. The room temperautre dielectric constant (epsilon) and loss tangent (tan delta) of the films were found to be 370 and 0.02 respectively. The values of the spontaneous polarization (P-s), remanent polarization (P-r) and coercive field (E-c) of the films determined from the polarization-field (P-E) hysteresis were found to be 14.0, 3.2 mu C-cm(-2) and 53KV-cm(-1) respectively. The coercive field of the firm determined from the capacitance-voltage (C-V) characteristics is slightly lower than that determined from the P-E hysteresis loop.