Growth of highly (110)- and (111)-textured SrTiO3 thin films on Pt(111)/α-Al2O3(0001) substrates by ECR ion beam sputter deposition

SrTiO3 (STO) thin films were directly grown on Pt(111)/α-Al2O3(0001) substrates without Ti buffer layer using electron cyclotron resonance ion beam sputter deposition. Highly (110)- and (111)-textured STO films were obtained at 600 and 750 °C, respectively. The structural, morphological and electrical properties of both textured films were studied and compared. From high-resolution X-ray diffraction data and in-plane pole figure analysis, highly (110)-textured STO film was found to contain three orientation variants related by a 120° in-plane rotation, while highly (111)-textured STO film had two orientation variants related by a 180° in-plane rotation. The presence of rod- and triangular-shaped grains was observed for the (110)- and (111)-textured film surfaces, respectively. Their grain orientations were also consistent with the structural analysis. The leakage current characteristics of Pt/STO/Pt capacitors were found to follow the Schottky emission and Poole–Frenkel conduction mechanisms. A larger dielectric constant of (111)-textured film (320 at 100 kHz) was obtained in comparison with that of (110)-textured film (238 at 100 kHz) due to the effect of biaxial in-plane tensile strain and larger grain size.