Rapid thermal processing of lithium tantalite thin films prepared by a diol-based sol–gel process

Lithium tantalite (LiTaO3) thin films have been deposited on Pt(111)/SiO2/Si(100) substrates by means of sol–gel spin-coating technology. Using a diol-based precursor solution and rapid thermal processing (RTP), highly c-axis oriented LiTaO3 thin films are obtained and the degree of orientation is increased with an increase of the heating rate. By changing the heating rate (600–3000 °C/min) and heating temperature (500–800 °C), the effects of various processing parameters on the growth of films are investigated. With the increase of heating rate, the grain size of LiTaO3 thin films decreases markedly, and the relative dielectric constant (er) increases from 28 up to 45.6. It was found that the dielectric loss factor (cosδ) decreased, and the ferroelectric properties were improved by the increase of heating rate. The figures of merit (Fv and Fm) indicate that the LiTaO3 thin film with a heating rate of 1800 °C/min is suitable for application as a high-performance pyroelectric thin-film detector.