Optical and electric properties of strontium bismuth tantalate thin films

High quality SrBi₂Ta₂O₉ ferroelectric thin films were fabricated on platinized silicon using pulsed laser deposition. The optical properties of the thin films were studied by spectroscopic ellipsometry from the ultraviolet to the infrared region. Optical constants, n ∼ 0.25 in the infrared region and n ∼ 2.18 in the visible spectral region, were determined through multilayer analyses on their respective pseudodielectric functions. The band-gap energy is estimated to be 4.14 eV. It was found that the leakage current mechanism of the film was from bulk limited Poole-Frenkle emission to interface-controlled Schottky emission with applied field increasing, and that the breakdown field of the film had a negative linear variation with the logarithm of the electrode area.