Influence of fabrication conditions on the ferroelectric polarization of barium titanate thin films

The polarization behavior of barium titanate (BTO) thin films fabricated using pulsed laser deposition (PLD) on two different electrodes (strontium ruthenate (SRO) and lanthanum strontium manganese oxide (LSMO)) was studied. (0 0 1) strontium titanate (STO) was used as the substrate in both samples. BTO thin films, ∼20 nm in thickness, were fabricated and characterized using a range of analytical techniques, such as atomic force microscopy (AFM), piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). PFM studies reveal significant enhancement in polarization response in BTO thin films between annealed and non-annealed samples, irrespective of bottom electrode. The thicknesses of each layer were further confirmed by TEM.