Dielectric properties and electrical behaviors of tunable Bi1.5MgNb1.5O7 thin films

The Bi1.5MgNb1.5O7 (BMN) thin films were prepared on Au-coated Si substrates by rf magnetron sputtering. We systematically investigated the structure, dielectric properties and voltage tunable property of the films with different annealing temperatures. The relationships of leakage current and breakdown bias field with annealing temperature were firstly studied and a possible explanation was proposed. The deposited BMN thin films had a cubic pyrochlore phase when annealed at 550 degrees C or higher. With the increasing of annealing temperature, the dielectric constant and tunability also went up. BMN thin films annealed at 750 degrees C exhibited moderate dielectric constant of 106 and low dielectric loss of 0.003-0.007 between 10 kHz and 10 MHz. The maximum tunability of 50% was achieved at a bias field of 2 MV/cm. However, thin films annealed at 750 degrees C had lower breakdown bias field and higher leakage current density than films annealed below 750 degrees C. The excellent physical and electrical properties make BMN thin films promising for potential tunable capacitor applications. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd and Techna Group S.r.l. All rights reserved.