Enhancement of fatigue endurance and retention characteristic in Bi3.25Eu0.75Ti3O12 thin films

The effects of moderate annealing temperature (600-800 °C) on the microstructure, fatigue endurance, retention characteristic, and remnant polarization (2Pr) of Bi3.25Eu0.75Ti3O12 (BET) thin films prepared by metal-organic decomposition (MOD) were studied in detail. 2Pr (66 µC/cm2 under 300 kV/cm), fatigue endurance (3% loss of 2Pr after 1.2 × 1010 switching cycles), and retention characteristic (no significant polarization loss after 1.8 × 105s) for BET thin film annealed at 700 °C are better than those for thin films annealed at other temperature. The mechanisms concerning the dependence of microstructure and ferroelectric properties on the annealing temperature were discussed.