Ferroelectric and piezoelectric properties of Ba0.85Ca0.15Ti0.90Zr0.10O3 films in 200 nm thickness range

Lead-free piezoelectric Ba0.85Ca0.15Ti0.90Zr0.10O3 (BCZT) thin films were fabricated on Si/SiO2/TiO2/Pt (100) substrates following chemical solution deposition technique. Microstructure of the nano-sized BCZT particles crystallized in the thin film was thoroughly characterized. Ferroelectric, dielectric and piezoelectric properties of the films were investigated in detail. The BCZT films annealed at 800 degrees C temperature exhibited high remanent polarization of 25 +/- 1 C/cm(2), energy density of 17 J/cm(3), dielectric constant of 1550 +/- 50 and dielectric tunability of 50%. Converse piezoelectric coefficients (d(33)) obtained from piezo-response force microscopy (PFM) measurements on BCZT grains of different grain size (20-100 nm) distributed on the BCZT 700 film varied widely from 90 to 230 pm/V. The same for BCZT 800 measured on different grain size (30-130 nm) varied from 120 to 295 pm/V. These BCZT thin films with high dielectric, ferroelectric, and piezoelectric properties might be good alternative to the PZT films for thin film piezoelectric device applications.