Structural and electrical properties of SrBi2Ta2O9 thin films fabricated by a modified metalorganic solution deposition technique.

Polycrystalline SrBi2Ta2O9 thin films having layered perovskite structure were fabricated by a modified metalorganic solution deposition technique on Pt-coated Si substrates at a temperature as low as 600 degrees C. The effects of post-deposition annealing on the structural and electrical properties were analyzed. The electrical measurements were conducted on Pt/SrBi2Ta2O9/Pt capacitors. The typical measured small signal dielectric constant and dissipation factor at 100 kHz were 330 and 0.023 and the remanent polarization and the coercive field were 8.6 mu C/cm(2) and 23 kV/cm, respectively, for 0.25-mu m-thick films annealed at 750 degrees C. The leakage current density was lower than 10(-8) A/cm(2) at an applied electric field of 150 kV/cm. The films showed good switching endurance under bipolar stressing at least up to 10(10) switching cycles and good memory retention characteristics even after about 10(6) s of memory retention.