Active Oxide Ferroelectric Thin Films

Caltech People: Prof. Harry Atwater (APh), Matt Dicken, Ken Diest, Jennifer Ruglovsky

Collaborators: Prof. Kaushik Bhattacharya, Prof. William A. Goddard, Prof. Sossina Haile, Prof. Michael Ortiz, Prof. G. Ravichandran (all Caltech)

Ferroelectric Thin Films Overview:

Coming soon...

Emerging Research Areas:

1. Biaxially-Textured MgO Templates for Ferroelectric Epitaxy

Biaxially textured MgO is technologically interesting since it provides a suitable path for silicon integration of single crystal-like films on amorphous substrates for many important perovskite oxide thin film materials. Single crystalline MgO (001) has already been used as a substrate for barium titanate and lead-zirconate titanate heteroepitaxy. Ion beam-assisted deposition (IBAD) creates biaxially textured films (polycrystalline films with a preferred in-plane and out-of-plane grain orientation) on amorphous substrates. Incorporation of biaxially textured ferroelectric films with silicon integrated circuits would enable new types of actuators for micro electrical mechanical systems (MEMS). Previous work has demonstrated high quality heteroepitaxy of perovskites on Si4, but typical integrated circuit fabrication processes do not leave single crystal Si available for oxide heteroepitaxy. By eliminating the requirement for a pre-existing heteroepitaxial template, IBAD MgO may provide an opportunity to incorporate ferroelectric materials on top of amorphous dielectric films in silicon integrated circuits following interconnect fabrication.

2. Bonding and Layer Transfer

Coming soon...

Available Presentations:

Thin Film Ferroelectrics: Fall 2002 MRS Conference

RHEED Observation of IBAD MgO Growth

Available Publications:

Competing failure mechanisms in thin films: Application to layer transfer
Laurent Ponson, Kenneth Diest, Harry A. Atwater, Guruswami Ravichandran, and Kaushik Bhattacharya
Journal of Applied Physics (2009)

Electrooptic Modulation in Thin Film Barium Titanate Plasmonic Interferometers
Matthew J. Dicken, Luke A. Sweatlock, Domenico Pacifici, Henri J. Lezec, Kaushik Bhattacharya, and Harry A. Atwater
Nano Letters (2008)

Growth and optical property characterization of textured barium titanate thin films for photonic applications
Matthew J. Dicken, Kenneth Diest, Young-Bae Park, and Harry A. Atwater
Journal of Crystal Growth (2007)

Single crystalline BaTiO3 thin films synthesized using ion implantation induced layer transfer
Young-Bae Park, Kenneth Diest, and Harry A. Atwater
Journal of Applied Physics (2007)

The effect of biaxial texture on the effective electromechanical constants of polycrystalline barium titanate and lead titanate thin films (Corrigendum)
Jennifer L. Ruglovsky, Jiangyu Li, Kenneth Diest, Kaushik Bhattacharya, and Harry A. Atwater
Acta Materialia (2007)

Integration of Single-Crystal LiNbO3 Thin Film on Silicon by Laser Irradiation and Ion Implantation–Induced Layer Transfer
Young-Bae Park, Bumki Min, Kerry J. Vahala, and Harry A. Atwater
Advanced Materials (2006)

The effect of biaxial texture on the effective electromechanical constants of polycrystalline barium titanate and lead titanate thin films
Jennifer L. Ruglovsky, Jiangyu Li, Kenneth Diest, Kaushik Bhattacharya, and Harry A. Atwater
Acta Materialia (2006)

Study of orientation effect on nanoscale polarization in BaTiO3 thin films using piezoresponse force microscopy
Il-Doo Kim, Ytshak Avrahami, Harry L. Tuller, Young-Bae Park, Matthew J. Dicken, Harry A. Atwater
Applied Physics Letters (2005)

Microstructure and properties of single crystal BaTiO3 thin films with ion implantation-induced layer transfer
Young-Bae Park, Jennifer L. Ruglovsky and Harry A. Atwater
Applied Physics Letters ,85(3), 455 (2004)

Reflection high-energy electron diffraction experimental analysis of polycrystalline MgO films with grain size and orientation distributions
Rhett T. Brewer, Harry A. Atwater, J. R. Groves, and P. N. Arendt
Journal of Applied Physics (2003)

Rapid biaxial texture development during nucleation of MgO thin films during ion beam-assisted deposition
Rhett T. Brewer and Harry A. Atwater
Applied Physics Letters (2002)

Reflection high-energy electron diffraction analysis of polycrystalline films with grain size and orientation distributions
John W. Hartman, Rhett T. Brewer, and Harry A. Atwater
Journal of Applied Physics (2002)