Conformal BaTiO3 Films with High Piezoelectric Coupling through an Optimized Hydrothermal Synthesis

Two-dimensional (2D) ferroelectric films have vast applications due to their dielectric, ferroelectric, and piezoelectric properties that meet the requirements of sensors, nonvolatile ferroelectric random access memory (NVFeRAM) devices, and micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS). However, the small surface area of these 2D ferroelectric films has limited their ability to achieve higher memory storage density in NVFeRAM devices and more sensitive sensors and transducer. Thus, conformally deposited ferroelectric films have been actively studied for these applications in order to create three-dimensional (3D) structures, which lead to a larger surface area. Most of the current methods developed for the conformal deposition of ferroelectric films, such as metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) and plasma-enhanced vapor deposition (PECVD), are limited by high temperatures and unstable and toxic organic precursors. In this paper, an innovative fabrication method for barium titanate (BaTiO3) textured films with 3D architectures is introduced to alleviate these issues. This fabrication method is based on converting conformally grown rutile TiO2 nanowire arrays into BaTiO3 textured films using a simple two-step hydrothermal process which allows for thickness-controlled growth of conformal films on patterned silicon wafers coated with fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO). Moreover, the processing parameters have been optimized to achieve a high piezoelectric coupling coefficient of 100 pm/V. This high piezoelectric response along with high relative dielectric constant (εr = 1600) of the conformally grown textured BaTiO3 films demonstrates their potential application in sensors, NVFeRAM, and MEMS.