Abstract.
(001)-oriented strontium bismuth tantalate thin films have been grown on Pt/TiO2/SiO2/Si (100) substrates by pulsed laser deposition. The room-temperature current–electric field dependence of the films has been investigated, which revealed a space-charge-limited conduction mechanism. The microstructures of grain boundaries and structural defects in these films were also examined by transmission electron microscopy and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, respectively. The grains of the films deposited at 550 °C exhibited polyhedral morphologies, and the average grain size was about 50 nm in length and 35 nm in width. At a small misorientation angle (8.2°) tilt boundary, a regular array of edge dislocations with about 3-nm periodic distance was observed, and localized strain contrast near the dislocation cores was also observed. The Burgers vector b of the edge dislocation was determined to be [110]. At a high misorientation angle (39.0°) tilt grain boundary lattice strain contrast associated with the distortion of lattice planes was observed, and the mismatching lattice images occurred at about 2 nm along the boundary. The relationship between microstructural defects at grain boundaries and leakage currents of these films is also discussed.
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Received: 8 September 2000 / Accepted: 18 December 2000 / Published online: 28 February 2001
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Zhu, X., Zhu, T., Liu, Z. et al. Microstructures of grain boundaries in (001)-oriented strontium bismuth tantalate thin films grown by pulsed laser deposition . Appl Phys A 72, 503–507 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1007/s003390100820
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s003390100820