Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 February 2011
This work presents a systematic study of ferroelectric films and multilayers made by a metal-organic chemical liquid deposition method. BaxSr1-xTiO3, Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3, and Pb(Zn1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3 films, as well as multilayers incorporated with these materials have been grown at different conditions. Ultrahigh dielectric constant (∼6700) has been achieved in the PMN/PZN-PT multilayers when the sublayer thickness approached to nanometer scale, where interfaces become dominant. When the sublayer materials with desired Curie temperatures were properly chosen, the temperature dependent dielectric constant of the multilayer structure could be greatly reduced. These nanostructured multilayers may find very important applications where temperature variation is a key concern. Pb doping in BaxSr1-xTiO3 was found very efficient in increasing the dielectric constant and reducing the loss. It is believed that the addition of Pb improved the film density and reduced the grain boundary defects.