Epitaxial growth of ferroelectric bismuth titanate thin films by pulsed laser deposition

Epitaxial thin films of ferroelectric bismuth titanate Bi4Ti3O12 have been grown by pulsed laser deposition on single-crystal [100] SrTiO3 substrates. Bismuth titanate has a high Curie temperature (675 °C) and saturation polarization values of 4 and 50 μC/cm2 along the c and b axis, respectively. Its a,b lattice parameters allow thin-film growth on substrates such as SrTiO3, LaAlO3, MgO, etc. These single crystalline films exhibit good quality as evidenced by x-ray diffraction, Rutherford backscattering, and transmission electron microscopy. Applications for these films include memory devices and optical displays.