Sol-gel processing of oriented SrTiO3 thin films

• Published in: Materials letters 1995-04, Vol.23 (1-3), p.123-127
• Main Authors: Selvaraj, Ulagaraj, Prasadarao, Alamanda V., Komarneni, Sridhar, Roy, Rustum
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Condensed matter: structure, mechanical and thermal properties; Exact sciences and technology; Low-dimensional structures (superlattices, quantum well structures, multilayers): structure, and nonelectronic properties; Physics; Structure and morphology; thickness; Surfaces and interfaces; thin films and whiskers (structure and nonelectronic properties); Thin film structure and morphology
• ISSN: 0167-577X; 1873-4979
• DOI: 10.1016/0167-577X(95)00013-5

Sol-gel processing was employed to fabricate multilayered SrTiO3 thin films onto fused silica, Si (100) and SrTiO3 (110) substrates. A Sr-Ti alkoxide precursor solution, chemically modified with diisopropanolamine, was hydrolyzed and spin-coated onto these substrates. These films were annealed at 300 °C and then heated to 650 °C for 1 h in air, which resulted in the formation of phase pure crystalline SrTiO3. X-ray diffraction analysis indicated that partially oriented films were deposited onto fused silica and Si (100), while highly oriented film was formed on SrTiO3 (110). A typical microstructure of the film deposited on SrTiO3 (110) and heated at 650 °C for 1 h showed the presence of submicrometer grains on the order of 0.05 to 0.1 μm. The thickness of a single coating measured from the cross section of the SEM micrograph was about 0.1 to 0.2 μm.