Improved dielectric and electrical properties of (Ba,Sr)TiO₃ thin films using Pt/LaNiO₃ as the top-electrode material

(Ba,Sr)TiO₃ (BST) capacitors grown on a LaNiO₃ (LNO) bottom electrode, with Pt (80 nm), LNO (100 nm), and double-layer Pt/LNO (80/10 nm) top electrodes have been investigated. It was found that the dielectric behavior is improved by a decrease of the electrical properties for the BST capacitor using double-layer Pt/LNO top electrodes. The dielectric constant of 100 nm-thick BST films with a Pt electrode was only 165 at 100 kHz, while that with a double-layer electrode was about 242. Correspondingly, the tunability was greatly improved from 26% to 41% with an electric field of 600 kV/cm. These have been attributed to increased interfacial capacitance density, which resulted from an improved interface, between the films and the top electrode. The dielectric loss was also reduced by using a double-layer electrode. Furthermore, the leakage current of a capacitor with a double-layer Pt/LNO electrode was one order of magnitude lower than that with a single LNO electrode. It can be explained by the fact that the weak chemical interaction between LNO (10 nm) and BST causes a high potential barrier at the interface.