Epitaxy of BaTiO3 thin film on Si(001) using a SrTiO3 buffer layer for non-volatile memory application

In this study we report the epitaxial growth of BaTiO3 films on Si(0 0 1) substrate buffered by 5 nm-thick SrTiO3 layer using both MBE and PLD techniques. The BaTiO3 films demonstrate single crystalline, (0 0 1)-oriented texture and atomically flat surface on SrTiO3/Si template. The electrical characterizations of the BaTiO3 films using MFIS structures show that samples grown by MBE with limited oxygen pressure during the growth exhibit typical dielectric behavior despite post deposition annealing process employed. A ferroelectric BaTiO3 layer is obtained using PLD method, which permits much higher oxygen pressure. The C-V curve shows a memory window of 0.75 V which thus enable BaTiO3 possibly being applied to the non-volatile memory application. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.