%0 Journal Article
%K Thin films
%K Annealing
%K Electrochemical electrodes
%K Film growth
%K Bismuth compounds
%K Ferroelectricity
%K Piezoelectric materials
%K Ferroelectric properties
%K Synthesis (chemical)
%K Piezoelectric properties
%K Piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM)
%K Polymeric precursor method
%A A.Z Simões
%A M.P Cruz
%A A Ries
%A E Longo
%A J.A Varela
%A Ramamoorthy Ramesh
%B Materials Research Bulletin
%D 2007
%G eng
%P 975-981
%R 10.1016/j.materresbull.2006.08.006
%T Ferroelectric and piezoelectric properties of bismuth titanate thin films grown on different bottom electrodes by soft chemical solution and microwave annealing
%V 42
%X Bismuth titanate (Bi4Ti3O12, BIT) films were evaluated for use as lead-free piezoelectric thin films in micro-electromechanical systems. The films were grown by the polymeric precursor method on LaNiO3/SiO2/Si (1 0 0) (LNO), RuO2/SiO2/Si (1 0 0) (RuO2) and Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si (1 0 0) (Pt) bottom electrodes in a microwave furnace at 700 °C for 10 min. The domain structure was investigated by piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM). Although the converse piezoelectric coefficient, d33, regardless of bottom electrode is around (∼40 pm/V), those over RuO2 and LNO exhibit better ferroelectric properties, higher remanent polarization (15 and 10 μC/cm2), lower drive voltages (2.6 and 1.3 V) and are fatigue-free. The experimental results demonstrated that the combination of the polymeric precursor method assisted with a microwave furnace is a promising technique to obtain films with good qualities for applications in ferroelectric and piezoelectric devices. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.