Growth and characterization of Eu-doped bismuth titanate (BET) thin films deposited by sol-gel method

Lead-free bismuth-layered perovskite ferroelectric europium-substituted $Bi_{4}Ti_{3}O_{12}(BTO)$ thin films have been successfully deposited on Pt/Ti/$SiO_2$/Si substrate by a sol-gel spin-coating process. $Bi(TMHD)_3,\;Eu(THMD)_3,\;Ti(OiPr)_4$ were used as the precursors, which were dissolved in 2-methoxyethanol. The thin films were annealed at various temperatures from $600^{\circ}\;to\;720^{\circ}C$ in oxygen ambient for 1 hr, which was followed by post-annealed for 1 hr after depositing a Pt electrode to enhance the electrical properties. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to analyze the crystallinity and surface morphology of layered perovskite phase, respectively. The remanent polarization value of the BET thin films annealed at $720^{\circ}C\;was\;25.95{\mu}C/cm^2$ at an applied voltage of 5 V.