Laser induced Crystallization of Barium Strontium Titanate Thin Films for Microwave Device Applications

Abstract

There is a technological necessity for the reduction of crystallization temperature of newlineferroelectric (FE) oxides to match their processing with that of the nano-electronic processing newlineconditions. The major problem to integrate FE oxides to a conventional semiconductor newlineprocessing is the higher crystallization temperature of FE oxides (and#707; 600and#8451;). In contrast, Si newlinewafers with nano-scale components cannot be subjected to a temperature above 300and#8451;. newlineTherefore, non-thermal routes for crystallizing these films became indispensable. To obtain newlinegood quality BST films via traditional routes such as conventional furnace heating, rapid newlinethermal processing etc. require a temperature around 700and#8451;. Such conditions are not newlinecompatible with either polymer or silicon substrates. Hence, fabricating FE devices on these newlinesubstrates are quite challenging. The only means to integrate these two technologies is by newlinedecreasing the processing temperatures of ferroelectric thin films. Understanding and finding newlinemeans to lower the processing temperatures of ferroelectric thin films is a necessary task of newlineprime importance for the realization of ferroelectrics based flexible electronics. Laser-induced newlinecrystallization (LIC), which is the primary goal of this thesis, has stood out to be one major newlinecontender for bringing down FE thin films processing temperature. newline