Ferroelectricity in sol-gel derived Ba_0.8Sr_0.2TiO₃ thin films using a highly diluted precursor solution

Barium strontium titanate thin films with good ferroelectricity are developed by a sol-gel processing technique that uses a highly dilute spin-on solution. Large grains with the size of 100-200 nm in the films are, using X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy investigations, formed from highly dilute spin-on solutions with layer-by-layer homoepitaxy. It is observed that the ferroelectricity is more evident as the grain size increases.