Thickness-dependent structural, optical and dielectric properties of pulsed laser deposited Nb-doped SrTiO3 thin films

• Published in: Journal of materials science. Materials in electronics Vol. 33; no. 11; pp. 8995 - 9002
• Main Authors: Kalaiezhily, R. K., Jayaseelan, V., Bharathi, K. Kamala, Navaneethan, M., Eswaran, Senthil Kumar
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.04.2022; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry and Materials Science; Dielectric properties; Materials Science; Niobium; Optical and Electronic Materials; Optical properties; Pulsed laser deposition; Pulsed lasers; Strontium titanates; Texturing; Thickness; Thin films; X ray photoelectron spectroscopy
• ISSN: 0957-4522; 1573-482X
• DOI: 10.1007/s10854-021-07038-3

Here, we report on the fabrication of Nb-doped SrTiO 3 (SrTi 0.90 Nb 0.10 O 3 ) thin films of various thicknesses (50 to 375 nm) using pulsed laser deposition. X-ray diffraction studies reveal that the SrTi 0.90 Nb 0.10 O 3 films are polycrystalline in nature with texturing along the (110) direction. XPS studies show that Nb replaces Ti confirming B-site doping. We demonstrate that the band gap of the SrTi 0.90 Nb 0.10 O 3 thin films exhibit a blue shift of ~ 340 meV with decrease in thickness from 375 to 50 nm. Impedance spectroscopic studies at various temperatures (30–150 °C) suggested that the dc conductivity of the films increases with increase in temperature suggesting a thermal activation of niobium donor in the films.