Ferroelectric ceramics are very promising materials for a variety of piezoelectric applications such as high permittivity dielectrics, piezoelectric sensors, piezoelectric/electrostrictive transducers, actuators, electro-optic devices, etc. Among the commercially viable ferroelectric ceramics, the lead-zircon ate-titivate Pb(Zr1-xTix)O3 (PZT) based ceramics have dominated the market due to their superior piezoelectric and dielectric property along with other advantages like high electromechanical coupling, ease of processing and low cost. However, the toxicity of lead based materials, and its volatility at processing temperatures is a serious health and environmental concern. Several legislations against lead-based products have been passed all over the world in order to encourage identification of alternative lead-free materials for these applications. As a consequence, there has been a remarkable surge in efforts by researchers on identifying lead-free alternatives for piezoelectric applications. A larger emphasis has been placed on perovskite based ceramics since in addition to possessing excellent properties, their relatively simple structure facilitates understanding structure-property relationships which are important for developing novel high performance materials. Na1/2Bi1/2TiO3 (NBT) and its solid solutions are one of the leading classes of perovskite ceramics, which show promising ferroelectric, piezoelectric and dielectric property thereby having the potential to replace PZT based ferroelectrics. The parent compound NBT is ferroelectric with large ferroelectric polarization (~40 C/cm2), promising piezoelectric properties with 0.08% maximum strain and longitudinal piezoelectric coefficient (d33) ~ 80 pC/N. Though NBT was discovered nearly six decades ago, a clear understanding of its structure remained elusive for a long time since different characterization techniques yielded contradicting reports on its structure and nature of phase transformation. However, rapid advances in characterization techniques in recent years have led to uncovering of new results, thereby shedding light on the true structure of NBT. X-ray and neutron diffraction studies in the past have shown that NBT exhibits rhombohedral (R3c) structure at room temperature, which undergoes a gradual transformation into tetragonal (P4bm) structure at ~230oC. However, recent characterization of both single crystal and powder of NBT using high resolution x-ray diffraction showed that the room temperature structure is not purely rhombohedral and the structure can be better modeled with a monoclinic (Cc) structure. In contrast to x-ray and neutron diffraction, electron diffraction studies have shown evidence for the presence of planar disorders, corresponding to in-phase octahedral tilts in the sample which cannot be accounted for by either R3c or Cc structure. In addition, EXAFS, x-ray and neutron total scattering studies, diffuse scattering studies, etc. have shown that the structural parameters obtained from bulk diffraction techniques are significantly different from the local structure of the material. Similar ambiguities have been observed even in NBT based solid solutions like BaTiO3, K1/2Bi1/2TiO3, etc. which show enhanced properties at the morphotropic phase boundary (MPB). A major breakthrough in understanding the structural complexity involved in NBT based solid solutions was achieved when it was found that the structure of the MPB compositions were sensitive to electric field. This led to solving the mystery behind the appearance of cubic-like phase at some of the MPB compositions where the application of electric-field resulted in the transformation of the structure into a co-existence of rhombohedral and tetragonal phases. Observation of an electric-field-induced structural transition at the MPB compositions was expected, because the MPB signifies instability in the system and even a minor external force can significantly influence the system. However, we have found that the structure of even pure NBT is significantly influenced by electric field and the framework of this thesis is based on this particularly important result. The intrinsic tendency of the electric field to affect the structure of NBT is a major factor which needs to be considered when studying similar phase transitions in the MPB compositions of NBT-substituted systems also. This was not taken into account by other research groups, and they assumed that the instability associated with the MPB was the only major factor involved in the electric-field induced transitions. A simple but highly effective strategy of grinding the electrically poled pellet into fine powder and then collecting x-ray diffraction patterns, facilitated elimination of preferred orientation in the sample. Thus, structural analysis by Rietveld refinement was possible even on the poled sample, which has not been carried out by any other groups on any ferroelectric ceramics so far. The initial part of the thesis deals with addressing the structural complexity of pure NBT, wherein the effect of electric field on the bulk structure as well as the local structure was studied in great detail. Later on, similar concepts are used to investigate BaTiO3 and K1/2Bi1/2TiO3 substituted NBT also. The first chapter of the thesis provides a brief introduction to the field of ferroelectrics, perovskite structure and their phase transition. An exposure to concepts like relaxor ferroelectrics, morphotrophic phase boundary, octahedral tilting, etc. has been provided. Then, a detailed overview of the existing literature related to the structure of NBT and its phase transition studies with temperature has been discussed. The details of the experimental procedures, characterization techniques used, and some theory behind these techniques have been provided in chapter 2. The third chapter deals with the room temperature structural characterization of pure NBT using techniques like x-ray diffraction, neutron diffraction, electron diffraction and EXAFS analysis. The results of these structural characterizations are also complemented with first-principles calculation study of the ground state structure of NBT, dielectric and ferroelectric characterization, and ageing studies. While x-ray and neutron diffraction clearly established electric-field induced structural transition from a monoclinic (Cc) to rhombohedral (R3c) structural transition, first principles calculation showed that the monoclinic phase is not stable and hence cannot be the ground state structure of NBT. Also, the possibility of the monoclinic features appearing in the x-ray diffraction solely due to micro structural effects by nano-sized domains was discussed. Comparison of electron diffraction of poled and unpoled samples of NBT showed that the in-phase tilted regions were greatly suppressed in the poled samples. Even HRTEM images showed that the unpoled samples had a very high concentration of strain heterogeneity in them, which was absent in the poled samples. This gave a direct evidence of correlation between observation of monoclinic phase and the presence of in-phase tilted regions in the unpoled samples. It was proposed that the strain caused by these in-phase tilted disorders caused distortion in the original rhombohedral lattice thereby making the structure appear monoclinic. Application of electric field causes the in-phase octahedral tilt disorders to vanish, thereby even the monoclinic features observed in the XRD also disappear. The fourth chapter discusses the consequences of poling on the high temperature phase transition behavior of NBT. We have used temperature dependent x-ray and neutron diffraction, Raman spectroscopy and EXAFS analysis whose results were correlated with the anomalies observed in temperature dependent dielectric and polarization studies. We found that the poled sample shows a sharp anomaly at the depolarization temperature (Td) in all the characterization techniques used, in contrast to a diffuse or negligible effect seen in the unpoled sample. The depolarization temperature was found to be associated with introduction of structural disorder in the sample in the form of in-phase octahedral tilts. This also gave rise to a normal to relaxor ferroelectric transition at Td, and this relaxor behavior persisted even after cooling the sample to room temperature. An intermediate cubiclike phase was observed from x-ray diffraction at around 300C wherein the rhombohedral phase vanishes and the tetragonal phase begins to appear. Even single crystal study of NBT in the past showed sudden disappearance of the domains at 300C, even though they were visible at both above and below this temperature. This effect was called isotropization, and was postulated to arise due to extremely small domains which made the system isotropic. However, our neutron diffraction pattern showed that in-phase tilted superlattice reflections persisted at this temperature which meant that the structure was not truly cubic at this temperature. Further, a neutron diffraction study at higher temperatures showed that the in-phase tilted superlattice reflections persisted even above the cubic phase transition temperature, in corroboration with similar reports from high temperature electron diffraction. Chapter five deals with the BaTiO3 substituted NBT system, which has gained tremendous interest in the last decade as a viable piezoelectric ceramic for commercial applications. Though a large number of groups have already carried out exhaustive studies on this system, most of the work concentrated mainly on the MPB compositions which showed enhanced piezoelectric properties. In this chapter, we highlight some important findings in the pre-MPB and post-MPB compositions. Using room-temperature and high temperature x-ray diffraction, we show that there exists a subtle compositional phase boundary at x = 0.03, which disappears upon poling the sample. While the monoclinic phase in pure NBT becomes cubiclike at this composition, the depolarization temperature (Td) also slightly increases up to this composition and then decreases upon further Ba substitution. Similar studies were also carried out with compositions containing slightly excess bismuth in them (0.1 mol %), whose purpose was to negate the effects of Bi-vaporization during sintering. It was found that while the compositional phase boundary remained essentially unchanged, there was a decrease in Td for all the compositions. It was also realized that the addition of excess bismuth improved the overall piezoelectric property of the system. Studies on higher compositions of Ba in the post-MPB regions further revealed two additional compositional phase boundaries. A criticality in the coercive field and spontaneous tetragonal strain was observed at x = 0.2, which was found to be associated with crossover from a long-period modulated tetragonal phase (for x < 0.2) to a no modulated tetragonal phase (for x > 0.2). Near the BT rich end (x ~ 0.7), the system exhibits a crossover from normal to a diffuse/relaxor ferroelectric transition with increasing Na1/2Bi1/2 substitution. The onset of relaxor state by Na1/2Bi1/2 substitution on the Ba-site, was shown to increase the spontaneous tetragonal strain in the system. This was because of the enhancement in the covalent character of the A-O bond by virtue of the Bi+3 6s2 lone pair effect, and it also led to a sudden increase in the tetragonal-to-cubic transition temperature. This was in contrast to other chemical modifications of BT reported in the past (like Zr, Sn, Sr, etc.) where the relaxor state is accompanied by a weakening of the ferroelectric distortion and a decrease in the critical temperature. Finally, chapter six covers the effect of electric field induced phase transition in K1/2Bi1/2TiO3 substituted NBT. Visual observation showed that while the compositions (x < 0.2) behaved similar to pure NBT, wherein the structure became purely rhombohedral upon poling, the effect of electric field was negligible in the post-MPB compositions (x > 0.2). In addition, the peaks in the annealed samples were considerably overlapping which made identifying the structural transitions at the MPB compositions difficult using Rietveld analysis. However, comparison of the FWHM of the {200}pc peaks of compositions x < 0.2 showed that the FWHM began to increase suddenly for x > 0.15 indicating emergence of the tetragonal phase. Also, all the compositions showed an increase in the {200}pc peak FWHM by 0.03 after poling. The depolarization temperature showed only slight variation in the pre-MPB compositions, but showed a minimum at the MPB compositions. Temperature dependent dielectric studies further showed that for the post-MPB compositions, the system remains relaxor even after poling.

L'idée que nous avons développé dans ce travail est de faire usage d'une commande électrique unique pour modifier à la fois les propriétés diélectrique et magnétique de nanomatériaux contenus dans le dispositif hyperfréquence. Pour cela, nous cherchons à exploiter le concept de propriété produit, dont un exemple est donné par l'effet magnétoélectrique (ME). Si l'on considère un mélange de deux phases condensées en contact, la première étant magnétostrictive et la seconde piézoélectrique, alors l'application d'un champ magnétique externe sur la phase magnétostrictive génère un champ de contrainte mécanique locale activant la piézoélectricité et ainsi fait apparaître un gradient de potentiel. En d'autres termes, la magnétoélectricité conduit à une variation de la permittivité par l'application d'un champ magnétique externe, et par commutativité, à une dépendance de la perméabilité magnétique sous l'action d'un gradient de potentiel. Les nanostructures granulaires présentent de nombreux avantages par rapport aux céramiques, aux couches minces et aux matériaux monophasés. La faible conductivité, l'absence d'interdiffusion et de réactions chimiques parasites dues au frittage, l'absence de substrat, la conservation de l'échelle nanométrique, la facilité et le faible coût du protocole d'élaboration de ces NCs en font des matériaux de choix pour la réalisation d'un effet ME en vue de proposer des dispositifs hyperfréquences originaux. Le fait saillant de ce travail a été de mettre en évidence un couplage magnétoélectrique (ME) dans des nanocomposites (NCs) granulaires biphasiques dans le domaine micro-onde à température ambiante. L'usage de la résonance ferromagnétique (RFM-LMB) sur une large gamme de fréquences (6-28 GHz) et de spectroscopie micro-onde (100 MHz-6 GHz) combiné à une étude du transport électronique et à l'utilisation de plusieurs sondes morphologiques nous a permis de corréler les propriétés dynamiques de l'aimantation, les paramètres électromagnétiques des matériaux, et les informations microstructurales au coefficient ME.

Cette thèse porte sur l'étude de couches minces ferroélectriques à base de BaTiO3 déposées par pulvérisation cathodique. Ces matériaux permettent par exemple de réaliser des condensateurs accordables ou encore des mémoires non-volatiles pour le stockage d'informations. Cependant, leurs propriétés diélectriques sont considérablement dégradées par des effets extrinsèques d'interfaces; film/substrat ou encore film/électrode. Dans ce contexte, la spectroscopie de photoémission (XPS) a été utilisée pour quantifier les états électroniques et chimiques de ces interfaces avec une approche in-situ. L'étude sur la formation du contact film/électrode a permis de mesurer la hauteur de barrière de Schottky partiellement responsable des caractéristiques capacités – tensions des couches. Des phénomènes de ségrégation ont été mis en évidence révélant une profonde instabilité de la stoechiométrie de surface. Enfin, la conséquence d'un dopage au niobium dans les couches minces de BaTiO3 est discutée du point de vue des modes de compensation, de la solubilité du dopant et des propriétés diélectriques.

The increasing miniaturization of electric and mechanical components makes the synthesis and assembly of nanoscale structures an important step in modern technology. Functional materials, such as the ferroelectric perovskites, are vital to the integration and utility value of nanotechnology in the future. In the present work, chemical methods to synthesize one-dimensional (1D) nanostructures of ferroelectric perovskites have been studied. To successfully and controllably make 1D nanostructures by chemical methods it is very important to understand the growth mechanism of these nanostructures, in order to design the structures for use in various applications. For the integration of 1D nanostructures into devices it is also very important to be able to make arrays and large-area designed structures from the building blocks that single nanostructures constitute. As functional materials, it is of course also vital to study the properties of the nanostructures. The characterization of properties of single nanostructures is challenging, but essential to the use of such structures. The aim of this work has been to synthesize high quality single-crystalline 1D nanostructures of ferroelectric perovskites with emphasis on PbTiO3 , to make arrays or hierarchical nanostructures of 1D nanostructures on substrates, to understand the growth mechanisms of the 1D nanostructures, and to investigate the ferroelectric and piezoelectric properties of the 1D nanostructures. In Paper I, a molten salt synthesis route, previously reported to yield BaTiO3 , PbTiO3 and Na2Ti6O13 nanorods, was re-examined in order to elucidate the role of volatile chlorides. A precursor mixture containing barium (or lead) and titaniumwas annealed in the presence of NaCl at 760 °C or 820 °C. The main products were respectively isometric nanocrystalline BaTiO3 and PbTiO3. Nanorods were also detected, but electron diffraction revealed that the composition of the nanorods was respectively BaTi2O5/BaTi5O11 and Na2Ti6O13 for the two different systems, in contradiction to the previous studies. It was shown that NaCl reacted with BaO(PbO) resulting in loss of volatile BaCl2 (PbCl2 ) and formation and preferential growth of titanium oxide-rich nanorods instead of the target phase BaTiO3 (or PbTiO3 ). The molten salt synthesis route may therefore not necessarily yield nanorods of the target ternary oxide as reported previously. In addition, the importance of NaCl(g) for the growth of nanorods below the melting point of NaCl was demonstrated in a special experimental setup, where NaCl and the precursors were physically separated. In Paper II and III, a hydrothermal synthesis method to grow arrays and hierarchical nanostructures of PbTiO3 nanorods and platelets on substrates is presented. Hydrothermal treatment of an amorphous PbTiO3 precursor in the presence of a surfactant and PbTiO3 or SrTiO3 substrates resulted in the growth of PbTiO3 nanorods and platelets aligned in the crystallographic &lt;100&gt; orientations of the SrTiO3 substrates. PbTiO3 nanorods oriented perpendicular to the substrate surface could also be grown directly on the substrate by a modified synthesis method. The hydrothermal method described in Paper II and III was developed on the basis of the method described in Appendices I and II. In Paper IV, a template-assisted method to make PbTiO3 nanotubes is presented. An equimolar Pb-Ti sol was dropped onto porous alumina membranes and penetrated into the channels of the template. Single-phase PbTiO3 perovskite nanotubes were obtained by annealing at 700 °C for 6 h. The nanotubes haddiameters of 200 - 400 nm with a wall thickness of approximately 20 nm. Excess PbO or annealing in a Pb-containing atmosphere was not necessary in order to achieve single phase PbTiO3 nanotubes. The influence of the heating procedure and the sol concentration is discussed. In Paper V, a piezoresponse force microscopy study of single PbTiO3 nanorods is presented. The piezoelectric properties were studied in both vertical and lateral mode. Piezoelectric activity and polarization switching was observed in the vertical mode, demonstrating the ferroelectric nature of the nanorods. The nanorods decomposed after repeated cycling of the dc bias at one spot on the nanorod, which resulted in parts of the nanorod disappearing and/or accumulation of particles on the surface of the nanorod. In Paper VI, a method to contact single nanorods by electron beam induced deposition of platinum is presented. An organometallic compound, (trimethyl)-methylcyclopentadienylplatinum(IV), was used as precursor. A home-made apparatus was constructed for the purpose and was mounted onto a scanning electron microscope. Calculations based on apparatus geometry and molecular flow were used to estimate the deposition time and the height of the deposits. The location and height of the deposits were controlled so that single nanorods could be successfully contacted at the ends of the nanorods. Fabrication of a sample device for piezoresponse force microscopy studies of single nanorods using an axial dc bias setup is described in Appendix IV. A proposed experimental setup for such studies is also presented.

Festkörper-basierte Kühlkreisläufe, die auf dem elektrokalorischen Effekt beruhen, sind in den vergangenen Jahren in den Mittelpunkt aktueller Forschungen gerückt, da für den direkten Betrieb keine klimaschädlichen Treibhausgase erforderlich sind und da sie das Potential für eine hohe Energieeffizienz aufweisen. Der elektrokalorische Effekt (EKE) beschreibt eine reversible adiabatische Temperaturänderung in polaren Materialien, die durch die Änderung eines äußeren elektrischen Feldes induziert wird. Besonders stark aus-geprägte elektrokalorische Eigenschaften treten für ferroelektrische Materialien im Bereich der Umwandlung zwischen ferro- und paraelektrischer Phase auf. Zudem verstärkt sich der EKE mit zunehmender Feldstärkeänderung. Ferroelektrische Dünnschichten, an die im All-gemeinen hohe elektrische Felder angelegt werden können, zeigen daher gute elektrokalo-rische Eigenschaften. Für das Materialsystem BaZrxTi1-xO3 (BZT) wurde in der Literatur beschrieben, dass Massivproben in Hinblick auf den EKE ein günstiges Eigenschaftsprofil aufweisen. In dieser Arbeit werden BZT–Dünnschichten hergestellt, um die vielverspre-chenden Eigenschaften dieses Materialsystems näher zu untersuchen und um ein besseres Verständnis der zugrundeliegenden physikalischen Vorgänge zu erlangen. Dazu wird ein epitaktisches Schichtwachstum angestrebt, um ein möglichst klar definiertes Gefüge zu erhalten und so den Zusammenhang zwischen mikrostrukturellen, ferroelektrischen und elektrokalorischen Eigenschaften untersuchen zu können. Durch eine Optimierung der Herstellungsbedingungen werden mit Hilfe der gepulsten Laserdeposition epitaktische BZT-Dünnschichten auf (001)-orientierten einkristallinen SrTiO3-Substraten abgeschieden. Dabei werden die hergestellten Proben mit Röntgenbeugungs-, Elektronenmikroskop und-Die durch den EKE induzierte adiabatische Temperaturänderung wird auf Basis einer thermodynamischen Analyse von feld- und temperaturabhängigen Polarisationsmessungen indirekt bestimmt. Extrinsische Einflüsse wie Leckströme oder Randschichteffekte können zu Deformationen der Polarisationhysterese führen und daher eine fehlerhafte Abschätzung des EKE verursachen. Es werden daher zwei Ansätze für eine direkte Charakterisierung des EKE in Dünnschichten beschrieben.

This thesis deals with the investigations on the atomic composition, chemical surface states and microstructural features of barium titanate and other electronic ceramics namely barium polytitantes, calcium manganites and magnesium calcium titanate by surface analytical techniques. After presenting a brief introduction on the ceramic materials studied in terms of their crystal structures, electrical properties, nonstoichiometry and interfacial characteristics, the thesis describes the synthesis of the ceramics and the methodology of the different surface analytical techniques utilized such as backscattering spectrometry (BS), an ion beam analysis (IBA) technique, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). The XPS investigations on the chemical surface states of polycrystalline barium titanate having well-defined electrical characteristics reveal the prevalence of Ba in two distinct chemical environments : the one corresponding to the lower binding energy is related to the dielectric while the other having higher binding energy is correlated to semiconducting properties of the ceramics. Processes such as abrasion or polishing make the surfaces more reactive and susceptible to atmospheric contamination. Sputter cleaning causes surface modification leading to changes in the Ba (3d) and Ti (2p) spectra. Studies on the surface atomic composition by BS and microstructural features of doped barium titanate ceramics reveal their interfacial characteristics in terms segregation of dopants or metal ion constituents. Surfaces of these ceramics exhibit cationic as well as anionic nonstoichiometry depending on the processing steps involved. Ceramics synthesized by oxalate precursor route are Ti-rich while those prepared by gel-to-crystallite method are Ba-rich. These are correlated to the chemical processes and background impurities which in turn control the microstructures. Barium titanate substitued with > 1 at. % Mn are deficient in oxygen and exist as the hexagonal polymorph. Acceptors segregate at the grain boundaries accompanied by the enrichment of Ti leading to PTCR or GBLC characteristics. The oxygen nonstoichiometry prevailing in the surface regions of differently processed calcium manganites is investigated by way of depth profile measurements involving 16O(a,a) 16O resonant scattering. These studies reveal extensive compositional heterogeneity across the surface layers particularly in the manganite specimens annealed in lower po2 leading to the stabilization of brownmillerite phase. Two of the microwave dielectric ceramics namely dibarium nona-titanate and barium tetra-titanate with suitable variations in Ba:Ti ratios have been synthesized by the carbonate-gel precipitation. The corresponding dense ceramics have high permittivity (~ 52) and low temperature coefficient of permittivity (TCK ~ 5 ppm /0C). Extensive miscibility between the ilmenite-type MgTiO3 and perovskite-type CaTiO3 over a wide compositional range is brought about by the simultaneous equivalent substitution of Al3+ + La3+. The resulting (Mg1-(x+y)CaxLay)(Ti1-yAly)O3 ceramics exhibit improved microwave dielectric properties by way of high permittivity, low TCK and high quality factor. The microarea elemental distribution and chemical surface state studies reveal the complexity in the Mg/Ca distribution and its correlation with the solid state miscibility as well as dielectric properties. The discontinuous changes in the local site symmetry of the cationic substituents in these ceramics have been investigated by the photoluminescence spectra using Pr3+ as the emission probe.

Les ferroélectriques relaxeurs se caractérisent par un large pic de permittivité en fonction de la température, dépendant de la fréquence du champ de mesure. Ce comportement est généralement attribué à la présence de régions polaires de taille nanométrique. L'un des enjeux expérimentaux est la détermination de la nature structurale de ces régions, nécessitant entre autres l'utilisation de sondes de la structure locale. L'objet de ce travail est l'étude de la structure locale dans les pérovskites relaxeurs BaTi1-xZrxO3 (0.25 ≤ x ≤ 0.50), présentant une substitution isovalente Ti4+/Zr4+. Les techniques expérimentales utilisées sont l'absorption des rayons X (EXAFS et XANES) et la détermination de la fonction de distribution de paires par diffusion totale des neutrons. Les déplacements des cations Ti4+ et Zr4+ dans leur cage d'oxygènes ont pu être déterminés. Le principal résultat est que les cations Ti4+ jouent un rôle majeur dans la polarisation locale des relaxeurs BaTi1-xZrxO3. Par ailleurs, il est montré que la déformation des octaèdres ZrO6 dépend directement de la répartition locale des Ti et des Zr dans la solution solide.

Dans l'optique d'une miniaturisation dans le secteur de la microélectronique et plus particulièrement dans celui de la téléphonie mobile, les matériaux pérovskites à très haute constante diélectrique sont des candidats intéressants au remplacement des diélectriques actuellement utilisés dans l'élaboration des capacités Métal/Isolant/Métal (MIM). Ce travail est consacré à l'élaboration et à la caractérisation de couches minces de titanate de strontium (SrTiO3) et de titanate de baryum (BaTiO3) déposées par pulvérisation par faisceau d'ions (IBS) dans des structures capacitives MIM Pt/diélectrique/Pt.<br />Une optimisation des dépôts à l'aide de plans d'expériences a été réalisée afin d'obtenir la constante diélectrique la plus élevée et ce, pour des températures d'élaboration les plus faibles possibles en vue de l'intégration des structures MIM sur les circuits intégrés.<br />Des analyses d'EXAFS, de XRR et d'AFM TUNA nous ont permis de comprendre l'influence de la microstructure des matériaux (taille de grain) et de la technologie d'élaboration des capacités (épaisseur de diélectrique, procédé de gravure de l'électrode supérieure et nature des électrodes) sur les propriétés des capacités MIM.<br />Une étude des multicouches SrTiO3/BaTiO3 a également été menée dans le but d'observer l'influence de la périodicité des empilements sur leurs propriétés électriques (constante diélectrique, linéarité en tension).

Le principal objectif de notre recherche est de comprendre comment la polarisation ferroélectrique affecte la chimi/physisorption des molécules de H2O sur une surface ferroélectrique et comment cette adsorption peut en retour affecter la structure atomique et chimique de la surface, et ainsi des propriétés ferroélectriques. Ces connaissances peuvent être utiles pour mieux comprendre la photo-production d'hydrogène à la surface d'un ferroélectrique, afin d'améliorer la réaction de photolyse de l'eau, en favorisant la séparation électron-trou ainsi que la réactivité de surface. Nous avons tout d'abord étudié la structure atomique et chimique de la surface du matériau ferroélectrique BaTiO3 (001) sous forme de couches minces épitaxiées et de monocristaux, avant et après des expositions contrôlées à l'eau. Le champ dépolarisant, produit par les discontinuités de surface, conduit à des modifications de la structure atomique, chimique et électronique. Nous avons ensuite démontré l'existence d'un film quasi-amorphe ultra-mince et ferroélectrique de BaTiO3. Enfin, la structure de surface du ferroélectrique uniaxial Sr0.67Ba0.33Nb2O6 (001) a été caractérisée, constituant ainsi la première étape pour l'amélioration de la photolyse de l'eau.

Les phénomènes d'écrantages à l'interface entre un matériau ferroélectrique (FE) et une électrode sont d'une grande importance pour la compréhension fondamentale de la ferroélectricité et pour de potentielles applications comme les mémoires FE. Dans cette thèse, l'utilisation de la photoémission des électrons a permis d'étudier plusieurs types d'écrantage sur des pérovskites FE. En premier lieu, la microscopie de photoémission (PEEM) a révélé la transition d'une phase FE monodomaine à une phase en domaines striées dans des couches ultraminces de BiFeO3. Le PEEM a aussi permis d'étudier quantitativement l'écrantage des surfaces de BaTiO3 par les lacunes d'oxygène. Enfin, la spectroscopie de photoémission (XPS) a permis d'étudier l'influence de la polarisation FE sur les propriétés électroniques d'une interface électrode/BaTiO3 grâce à un dispositif original qui permet de polariser la couche FE in-situ pendant l'acquisition des spectres XPS.