Crystallinity and electrical properties of (Pb,Sr)TiO3 films enhanced by laser-assisted low-thermal-budget annealing

Abstract

The physical and electrical properties of (Pb,Sr)TiO3 (PSrT) films annealed by various techniques are systematically investigated in this study. The crystallinity and ferroelectricity of PSrT films can be enhanced by excimer laser annealing (ELA), but the effect only works on the upper region of films. On the other hand, PSrT films treated by rapid thermal annealing (RTA) can also improve crystallinity and ferroelectricity. However, the leakage current of films is seriously increased due to defects and interfacial diffusion induced by post-RTA at high temperature. As a result, the laser-assisted two-step annealing (post-ELA+RTA) is proposed in this work. It is found that PSrT films treated by post-ELA+RTA show improved crystallinity, better ferroelectric properties, higher dielectric constant, and lower leakage currents, which bring out the longer lifetime and higher breakdown field.