Influence of Film Thickness on Dielectric Properties of Y and Mn Alternately Doped BST Films.

By adjusting film thickness, smooth and dense Mn and Y alternately doped Ba0.6Sr0.4TiO3(Mn/Y-BST) films have been designed and prepared by improved sol-gel method, and the structure and dielectric properties of the films have been studied. X-ray diffraction (XRD) reveals that all films grow along (110) orientation, doped Mn2+ions or Y3+ions show acceptor doping, and thicker film shows stronger crystallization. Atomic force microscope (AFM) shows the films are relatively smooth without obvious cracks or pinholes. Scanning electronic microscope (SEM) indicates that from substrate to surface the films show nodular microstructures to columnar ones without obvious interface among nodular microstructure layers. Compared to pure BST film or Mn or Y doped BST films, all alternately doped films show markedly improved structures and dielectric properties, which is strongly dependent on film thickness. 6-layer Mn/Y-BST film shows best structure and combination of dielectric properties with dielectric loss of 1.18%, tunability of 38% and figure of merit (FOM) of 32.2 at 100 kHz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]