Structural, electrical, and optical properties of sol-gel-derived zirconium-doped barium titanate thin films on transparent conductive substrates

Barium zirconium titanate (Ba(Zr (x) Ti1-x )O-3, BZT) super smooth thin films are synthesized through modified sol-gel dip coating route on fluorine-doped tin oxide substrates with a suitably low calcination temperature. The Fourier tranformed infrared spectroscopy proves that impurities and starting materials are completely removed in the calcination process. Crystallographic phases of the samples are identified by the X-ray diffractometry and confirms that all samples are crystallized into a single perovskite phase. Introducing zirconium into the structure causes a reduction in dielectric constant of barium titanate. The optical properties of the films are also investigated. The results indicate that all samples are highly transparent and zirconium reduces the absorption coefficient. Moreover, the band gap energy of barium titanate increases when doped with zirconium and the highest band gap energy of about 3.71 eV along with the lowest dielectric constant of 850 at frequency of 100 kHz are obtained in 15 at.% zirconium-doped sample. [GRAPHICS] .