Preparation and Characterization of Ferroelectric Bi₄Ti₃O₁₂ Thin Films Grown on (100)-Oriented Silicon Wafers

Ferroelectric bismuth titanate (Bi 4 Ti 3 O 12 ) thin films were prepared directly on (100) silicon substrate by rf planar magnetron sputtering using a Bi 2 TiO 5 ceramic target. Highly c -axis-oriented films were obtained at a high deposition rate of about 17 nm/min. The deposited thin films, consisting of plate-like grains about 2 µm in diameter, were grown uniformly parallel to the substrate surface. The remanent polarization ( P r ) and the coercive field ( E c ) of this film at 50 Hz were estimated to be 0.8 µC/cm 2 and 20 kV/cm, respectively.