Intérêt industriel, pression politique : deux raisons majeures pour lesquelles la synthèse de couches minces piézoélectriques sans Plomb performantes est devenue un sujet de recherche important. L’objectif de ces travaux est la synthèse et la caractérisation d’un matériau prometteur : le BNT. L’élaboration de couches minces de BNT par pulvérisation cathodique rf-magnetron a été optimisée. L’étude montre qu’un recuit à 675°C sous Oxygène permet la meilleure cristallisation du BNT. Les caractérisations électriques ont mis en évidence de bonnes propriétés diélectrique, ferroélectrique et piézoélectrique. Les valeurs de polarisation et de déplacement obtenus en appliquant un champ électrique sont remarquables. Cependant, les valeurs rémanentes sont peu élevées. L’étude en température a permis de déterminer les transitions de phase et de démontrer le caractère relaxeur du BNT. Le mélange de BT avec le BNT dans une solution solide doit améliorer les performances électriques. Des courants de fuite ont provoqué l’effet inverse c'est-à-dire une dégradation des propriétés de nos couches minces. / Industrial interest, political pressure: two major reasons for the synthesis of unleaded piezoelectric thin layers with high performances have become an important research topic. The objective of this work is the synthesis and characterization of a promising material: NBT. The development of NBT thin films by rf-magnetron sputtering was optimized. The study shows that annealing at 675°C under oxygen allows better crystallization of NBT. Electrical characterizations showed good dielectric, ferroelectric and piezoelectric properties. Polarization and displacement values obtained by applying an electric field are remarkable. However, values of remnant polarization are low. The temperature study was used to determine phase transitions and highlighted the relaxor character of NBT. The mixture of BT with the NBT in a solid solution should improve the electrical performances. Leakage currents caused the opposite effect, that is to say, a degradation of the properties of our thin films.

Ce travail de thèse s’inscrit dans le cadre de l’intégration des films minces ferroélectriques de BaxSr(1-x)TiO3 au sein de dispositifs microondes. Dans un premier temps, les caractéristiques diélectriques des films de B0.3S0.7TiO3 déposés par pulvérisation cathodique ont été déterminées. Il a été mis en évidence l’intérêt d’une couche tampon dans le contrôle de l’orientation des films ainsi que son impact dans l’évolution des propriétés diélectriques. L’utilisation d’une structure coplanaire optimisée a été utilisée dans le but de déterminer les évolutions fréquentielles de la permittivité, des pertes ainsi que de l’accordabilité jusqu’à 67 GHz. La caractérisation du matériau a permis la réalisation et la qualification de l’élément de base dans la conception de dispositifs microondes accordables : la capacité ferroélectrique. Le phénomène d’agilité a été mis en exergue au sein de cette structure.Par la suite, une analyse complète a été menée sur un dispositif de type résonateur. Une étude analytique couplée à la réalisation de démonstrateur a permis de mettre en évidence la configuration nous permettant d’exploiter au mieux les propriétés des films de BST. / This work is dedicated to the integration of ferroelectric BaxSr(1-x)TiO3 thin films in microwave devices. Initially, the dielectric properties of B0.3S0.7TiO3 films deposited by radiofrequency magnetron sputtering were determined. It has been demonstrated the influence of a buffer layer in the control of orientation films and the impact in the evolution of dielectric properties. The realization of optimized coplanar waveguide has permit to determine the frequency evolution of permittivity, loss factor and tunability up to 67 GHz. The characterization of the dielectric properties has enabled the realization and qualification of the basic element in the design of tunable microwave devices: the ferroelectric capacitance. The agility property has been highlighted within this structure. Subsequently, a complete analysis was conducted on a resonator. An analytical study coupled with the demonstrator realization highlighted the configuration allowing us to exploit the properties of BST films.

Methods for and computed results of including the physics and spatial attributes of microstructures are presented for a number of materials applications in devices. The research in our group includes applications of computation of macroscopic response of material microstructures, the development of methods for calculating microstructural evolution, and the morphological stability of structures. In this review, research highlights are presented for particular methods for computing the response in: 1) ferroelectric materials for actuator devices; 2) coarse-graining of atomistic data for simulations of microstructural evolution during processing; 3) periodic and non-periodic photonic composites; and 4) re-chargeable battery microstructures. / Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA)

Organic thin film transistors (TFT) are an attractive option for low cost electronic applications and may be used for active matrix displays and for RFID applications. To extend the range of applications there is a need to develop and optimise the performance of non-volatile memory devices that are compatible with the solution-processing fabrication procedures used in plastic electronics. A possible candidate is an organic TFT incorporating the ferroelectric co-polymer poly(vinylidenefluoride-trifluoroethylene)(P(VDF-TrFE)) as the gate insulator. Dielectric measurements have been carried out on all-organic metal-insulator-semiconductor structures with the ferroelectric polymer poly(vinylidenefluoride-trifluoroethylene) (P(VDF-TrFE)) as the gate insu-lator. The capacitance spectra of MIS devices, were measured under different biases, showing the effect of charge accumulation and depletion on the Maxwell-Wagner peak. The position and height of this peak clearly indicates the lack of stable depletion behavior and the decrease of mobility when increasing the depletion zone width, i.e. upon moving into the P3HT bulk. The lack of stable depletion was further investigated with capacitance-voltage (C-V) measurements. When the structure was driven into depletion, C-V plots showed a positive flat-band voltage shift, arising from the change in polarization state of the ferroelectric insulator. When biased into accumulation, the polarization was reversed. It is shown that the two polarization states are stable i.e. no depolarization occurs below the coercive field. However, negative charge trapped at the semiconductor-insulator interface during the depletion cycle masks the negative shift in flat-band voltage expected during the sweep to accumulation voltages. The measured output characteristics of the studied ferroelectric-field-effect transistors confirmed the results of the C-V plots. Furthermore, the results indicated a trapping of electrons at the positively charged surfaces of the ferroelectrically polarized P(VDF-TrFE) crystallites near the insulator/semiconductor in-terface during the first poling cycles. The study of the MIS structure by means of thermally stimulated current (TSC) revealed further evidence for the stability of the polarization under depletion voltages. It was shown, that the lack of stable depletion behavior is caused by the compensation of the orientational polarization by fixed electrons at the interface and not by the depolarization of the insulator, as proposed in several publications. The above results suggest a performance improvement of non-volatile memory devices by the optimization of the interface. / Organische Transistoren sind besonders geeignet für die Herstellung verschiedener preisgünstiger, elektronischer Anwendungen, wie zum Beispiel Radio-Frequenz-Identifikations-Anhänger (RFID). Für die Erweiterung dieser Anwendung ist es notwendig die Funktion von organischen Speicherelementen weiter zu verbessern. Das ferroelektrische Polymer Poly(vinylidene-Fluoride-Trifluoroethylene) (P(VDF-TrFE)) eignet sich besonders gut als remanent polarisierbarer Isolator in Dünnschich-Speicherelementen. Um Schalt- und Polarisationsverhalten solcher Speicherelemente zu untersuchen, wurden P(VDF-TrFE)-Kondensatoren und Metall-Halbleiter-Isolator-Proben sowie ferroelektrische Feld-Effekt-Transistoren (Fe-FET) aus dem Halbleiter Poly(3-Hexylthiophene) (P3HT) und P(VDF-TrFE) hergestellt und dielektrisch untersucht. Die Charakterisierung der MIS-Strukturen mittels spannungsabhängiger Kapazitätsspektren machte deutlich, dass es nicht möglich ist, einen stabilen Verarmungzustand (Aus-Zustand) zu realisieren. Kapazität-Spannungs-Messungen (C-V) an MIS-Proben mit uni/bi-polaren Spannungszyklen zeigten eine stabile ferroelektrische Polarisation des P(VDF-TrFE)-Films. Eine Depolarisation des Isolators durch den Mangel an Minoritäts-Ladungsträgern konnte als Grund für die Instabilität des Verarmungs-Zustandes ausgeschlossen werden. Die C-V-Kurven wiesen vielmehr auf die Existenz fixierter, negativer Ladungsträger an der Grenzfläche hin. Zusammenfassend kann festgestellt werden: die Ursache der Ladungsträgerinstabilitäten in organischen ferroelektrischen Speicherelementen ist auf die Kompensation der ferroelektrischen Orientierungspolarisation durch "getrappte"(fixierte) negative Ladungsträger zurückzuführen. Dieses Ergebnis liefert nun eine Grundlage für die Optimierung der Isolator/Halbleiter-Grenzfläche mit dem Ziel, die Zahl der Fallenzustände zu minimieren. Auf diesem Wege könnte die Stabilität des Speicherzustandes in organischen Dünnschichtspeicherelementen deutlich verbessert werden.

This thesis presents the synthesis and investigations of physical and chemical properties of multiferroic materials experimentally as well as theoretically. Multiferroics are materials in which at least two of the three ferroic orders, ferroelectricity, ferromagnetism and ferroelasticity occur in the same phase. Multiferroics, have the potential to be used as a four state as well as cross switchable memory devices. The thesis is organized into seven Chapters. Chapter 1 gives a brief overview of the different facets of multiferroics, explaining the origin of Multiferroicity and magnetoelectric coupling, their possible technological applications and the challenges involved. Chapter 2-4 concerns the experimental aspects and chapter 5-7 concerns the theoretical aspects. Chapter 2 deals with experimental investigations on nanoscale charge-ordered rare earth manganites. It shows with decreasing particle size the ferromagnetic interaction increases and the charge-ordering vanishes down to the lowest sizes. Chapter 3 describes magneto-dielectric, magnetic and ferroelectric properties of hexagonal LuMnO3. It also describes the Raman spectroscopy of this compound through the magnetic and ferroelectric transition temperatures. Chapter 4 deals with the anisotropic multiferroic properties in single crystals of hexagonal ErMnO3. In chapter 5 a brief introduction of density functional theory (DFT) is given. Chapter 6 deals with the magneto-structural changes, spin-phonon couplings and crystal field splittings for the different magnetic orderings LuMnO3. Chapter 7 elucidates the role of Lu d0-ness for the ferroelectricity observed of this compound.

Ferroelectric crystals are commonly used in nonlinear optics for frequency conversion of laser radiation. The quasi-phase matching (QPM) approach uses a periodically modulated nonlinearity that can be achieved by periodically inverting domains in ferroelectric crystals and allows versatile and efficient frequency conversion in the whole transparency region of the material. KTiOPO4 (KTP) is one of the most attractive ferroelectric non-linear optical material for periodic domain-inversion engineering due to its excellent non-linearity, high resistance for photorefractive damage, and its relatively low coercive field. A periodic structure of reversed domains can be created in the crystal by lithographic patterning with subsequent electric field poling. The performance of the periodically poled KTP crystals (PPKTP) as frequency converters rely directly upon the poling quality. Therefore, characterization methods that lead to a deeper understanding of the polarization switching process are of utmost importance. In this work, several techniques have been used and developed to study domain structure in KTP, both in-situ and ex-situ. The results obtained have been utilized to characterize different aspects of the polarization switching processes in KTP, both for patterned and unpatterned samples. It has also been demonstrated that it is possible to fabricate sub-micrometer (sub-μm) PPKTP for novel optical devices. Lithographic processes based on e-beam lithography and deep UV-laser lithography have been developed and proven useful to pattern sub- μm pitches, where the later has been the most convenient method. A poling method based on a periodical modulation of the K-stoichiometry has been developed, and it has resulted in a sub-μm domain grating with a period of 720 nm for a 1 mm thick KTP crystal. To the best of our knowledge, this is the largest domain aspect-ratio achieved for a bulk ferroelectric crystal. The sub-micrometer PPKTP samples have been used for demonstration of 6:th and 7:th QPM order backward second-harmonic generation with continuous wave laser excitation, as well as a demonstration of narrow wavelength electrically-adjustable Bragg reflectivity. / QC 20100930

Piezoelectric materials are widely used for sensors, actuators and trasducers. Traditionally, piezoelectric applications are dominated by multicomponent oxide ferroelectrics such as lead zirconate titanate (PZT), which have the advantage of high piezoelectric coefficients. Recently, one-dimensional piezoelectric nanostructures such as nanowires of zinc oxide (ZnO) and gallium nitride (GaN) has gained a lot of attention due to their combined piezoelectric and semiconducting properties. The focus of this thesis is to study the processing and electric properties of such piezoelectric thin films and nanostructures for various applications. There is an increasing interest to form thin films of multicomponent ferroelectric oxides such as PZT on three-dimensional structures for charge storage and MEMS applications. Traditional vapor phase deposition techniques of PZT offer poor conformality over threedimensional surfaces due to their reactant transport mechanisms. As an alternative, solgel synthesis may provide new process possibilities to overcome this hurdle but the film quality is usually inferior, and the yield data was usually reported for small device areas. The first part of this study is dedicated to the characterization of the electric properties and yield of PZT thin film derived from the sol-gel process. PZT thin films with good electric property and high yield over a large area have been fabricated. La doping was found to double the breakdown field due to donor doping effect. LaNiO3 thin films that can be coated on a three-dimensional surface have been synthesized by an all-nitrate based sol-gel route, and the feasibility to form a conformal coating over a three-dimensional surface by solution coating techniques has been demonstrated. ZnO and GaN micro/nanowires are promising piezoelectric materials for energy harvesting and piezotronic device applications. The second part of this study is focused on the growth of ZnO and GaN micro/nanowires by physical vapor deposition techniques. The morphology and chemical compositions are revealed by electron microscopy. Utilizing the as-grown ZnO nanowires, single nanowire based photocell has been fabricated, and its performance was studied in terms of its response time, repeatability, excitation position and polarization dependence upon He-Cd UV-laser illumination. The excitation position dependence was attributed to the competition of two opposite photo- and thermoelectric currents originated from the two junctions. The excitation polarization dependence was attributed to the difference in optical properties due to crystallographic anisotropy. Employing the as-grown GaN nanowires, single nanowire based strain sensor is demonstrated, and its behavior is discussed in terms of the effect of strain-induced piezopotential on the Schottky barrier height.

The present study describes the growth and characterization of pulsed laser ablated Bao.sSro.sTiOs (BST) thin films. Emphasis has been laid on the study of a plausible correlation between structure and property in order to optimize the processing parameters suitably for required application. An attempt has been made to understand the basic properties such as, origin of dielectric response, charge transfer under low and high-applied electric fields across the BST capacitor and finally the dielectric breakdown process. Chapter 1 gives a brief introduction on the application of ferroelectric thin films in microelectronic industry and its growth techniques. It also addresses the present issues involved in the introduction of BST as a capacitor material for high-density dynamic random access memories. Chapter 2 outlines the motivation for the present study and briefly outlines the research work involved. Chapter 3 describes the experimental procedure involved in the growth and characterization of BST thin films using pulsed laser ablation technique. Details include the setup design for PLD growth, material synthesis for the ceramic targets, deposition conditions used for thin film growth and basic characterizations methods used for study of the grown films. Chapter 4 describes the effect of systematic variation of deposition parameters on the physical and electrical properties of the grown BST films. The variation in processing conditions has been found to directly affect the film crystallinity, structure and morphology. The change observed in these physical properties may also be correlated to the observed electrical properties. This chapter summarizes the optimal deposition conditions required for growing BST thin films using a pulsed laser ablation technique. Microstructure of BST films has been categorized into two types: (a) Type I structure, with multi-grains through the film thickness, for amorphous as-grown films after high temperature annealing (exsitu crystallized), and (b) columnar structure (Type II) films, which were as-grown well-crystallized films, deposited at high temperatures. The ac electrical properties have been reviewed in detail in Chapter 5. Type I films showed a relatively lower value of dielectric constant (e ~ 426) than Type II films with dielectric constant around 567. The dissipation factors were around 0.02 and 0.01 for Type I and Type II films respectively. The dispersion in the frequency domain characteristics has been quantitatively explained using Jonscher's theory. Complex impedance spectroscopy employed showed significant grain boundary response in the case of multi-grained Type I films while negligible contribution from grain boundaries has been obtained in the case of columnar grained Type II BST films. The average relaxation time r obtained from the complex impedance plane plots show almost three orders higher values for Type I films. The obtained results suggest that in multi-grained samples, grain boundary play a major role in electrical properties. This has been explained in accordance to a model proposed on the basis of depleted grains in the case of Type I films where the grain sizes are smaller than the grain boundary depletion width. Chapter 6 describes the dc leakage properties of the grown BST thin films and the influence of microstructure on the leakage properties. It was evident from the analysis of the graph of leakage current against measurement temperature, that, the observed leakage behavior in BST films, can not be attributed to a single charge transport mechanism. For Type I films, the Arrhenius plot of the leakage current density with 1000/T exhibits different regions with activation energy values in the range of 0.5 and 2.73 for low fields (2.5kV/cm). The activation energy changes over to 1.28 eV at high fields (170 kV/cm). The obtained values agree well with that obtained from the ac measurements, thus implying a similarity in the origin of the transport process. The activation energy value in the range of 0.5 eV is attributed to the electrode/film Schottky barrier, while the value in the range of 2.73 eV is due to deep trap levels originating from Ti+3 centers. The value in the range of 1.28 eV has been attributed to oxygen vacancy motion. Similar results have been obtained from the Arrhenius plot of the leakage current for Type II films. In this case, only two different activation energy values can be identified in the measured temperature and applied electric field range. At low fields the activation energy value was around 0.38 eV while at high fields the value was around 1.06 eV. These values have been identified to be originating from the electrode/film Schottky barrier and oxygen vacancy motion respectively. Thus a complete picture of the charge transport process in the case of BST thin film may be summarized as comprising of both electronic motion as well as contribution from oxygen vacancy motion. The effect of electrical stress on the capacitance-voltage (C-V) and the leakage current has been analyzed in Chapter 7. From the change in the zero bias capacitance after repeated electron injection through the films the values of the electronic capture cross-section and the total trap density for Type I and II films have been estimated. The results showed higher values for Type I film in comparison to Type II films. The difference has been attributed to the presence of grain boundaries and a different interface in the case of Type I films when compared to Type II films where the absence of grain boundaries is reflected in the columnar microstructure. A study of the time-dependent-dielectric-breakdown (TDDB) characteristics under high fields for Type I and Type II films showed higher endurance for Type I film. On the other hand space-charge-transient characteristics have been observed in the case of Type II films at elevated temperature of measurement. Mobility and activation energy values extracted from the transient characteristics are found to be in the range of 1 x 10~12 cm2 /V-sec and 0.73 eV respectively, suggesting a very slow charge transport process, which has been attributed to the motion of oxygen vacancies. An overall effect of electrical stress suggested that oxygen vacancy motion can be related to the observed resistance degradation and TDDB, which has been further enhanced by the combination of high temperature and high electric fields. Chapter 8 deals with the effect of intentional doping in the BST films. The doping includes Al at the Ti-site, Nb in the Ti-site and La at the Ba/Sr-site. The effect of doping was observed both on the structure and electrical properties of the BST films. Acceptor doping of 0.1 atomic 7c Al was found to decrease the dielectric constant as well as the leakage current. For higher concentration of acceptor-dopant, the leakage current was found to increase while showing space-charge-transient in the TDDB characteristics, again suggesting the effect of increased concentration of oxygen vacancies. Donor doping using 2 atomic % La and Xb significantly improved the leakage as well as the TDDB characteristics by reducing the concentration of oxygen vacancies. A further procedure using graded donor doping in the BST films exhibits even better leakage and TDDB properties. An unconventional, graded doping of donor cations has been carried out to observe the impact on leakage behavior, in particular. The leakage current measured for a graded La-doped BST film show almost six orders of lower leakage current in comparison to undoped BST films, while endurance towards breakdown has been observed to increase many-fold. Chapter 9 highlights the main findings of the work reported in this thesis and lists suggestions for future work, to explore new vistas ahead.

The present research work focuses on the fabrication and characterization of epitaxial heterostructures of 0.7 Pb(Mg1/3N2/3)O3 – 0.3 PbTiO3 (PMN-PT) and La0.6Sr0.4MnO3 (LSMO) using multi target pulsed laser ablation technique. Different heterostructures such as bilayered thin films with different individual layer thickness; symmetric and asymmetric superlattices of different periodicities were fabricated. Roles of individual layer thickness, elastic strain and interfaces between PMN-PT and LSMO layers on different physical properties were studied. An attempt has been made to understand the influence of the charge depleted interface states in addition to the probable strain mediated elastic coupling effect on the observed magneto-dielectric response in these engineered heterostructures. Chapter 1 provides a brief introduction to the multiferroic materials, occurrence of magnetoelectric (ME) coupling in them, their possible technological applications and the challenges involved. A short historical account of the multiferroic research is discussed to emphasize the importance of artificial multiferroics, particularly the engineered thin film heterostructures. Finally the specific objectives of the current research are outlined. Chapter 2 deals with the various experimental studies carried out in this research work. It gives the details of the experimental set up and the basic operation principles of various structural and physical characterizations of the materials prepared. A brief explanation of material fabrication, structural, micro structural and physical property measurements is discussed. Chapter 3 addresses the phase formation, structural and microstructural features of the engineered heterostructures fabricated epitaxially on single crystalline LaAlO3 (100) substrates. A thin layer of LaNiO3 used as the bottom electrode material for electrical characterizations was grown on the bare substrate prior to the fabrication of the PMN-PT/LSMO heterostructures. The structural and microstructural features of different individual layers were also studied by fabricating single layer thin films of the materials. The effects of individual layer thicknesses on the surface roughness, grain size and lattice strain of the heterostructures are discussed. Chapter 4 deals with the ferroelectric studies of the PMN-PT/LSMO epitaxial heterostructures. Polarization hysteresis (P-E), capacitance – voltage (C-V) and pulsed polarization (PUND) measurements were carried out as functions of applied voltage, frequency and delay time to characterize the ferroelectric properties of the heterostructures. All the bilayered heterostructures exhibited robust ferroelectric response and contribution of non – remnant components to their polarization behaviour were observed from the P-E studies. The symmetric superlattices did not exhibit any ferroelectricity due to high leakage current conduction. After optimizing the LSMO and PMN-PT layer thicknesses ferroelectricity was observed in the asymmetric superlattices accompanied by substantial reduction in the leakage current conduction. The P-E loops were found to be asymmetrically shifted along the electric field axis in all the superlattices indicating the presence of dielectric passive layers and strong depolarizing fields at the interfaces between PMN-PT and LSMO. Chapter 5 deals with the ferromagnetic studies of the PMN-PT/LSMO heterostructures. All the heterostructures exhibited ferromagnetic behaviour in the temperature range of 10 K – 300 K with an in plane magnetic easy axis ([100]) compared to the out of plane ([001]) direction. The magnetization behaviour of the bilayers and superlattices as a function of magnetic field strength, temperature and different individual layer thickness of PMN-PT and LSMO are discussed in terms of the oxygen deficiency, magnetic dead layers and lattice strain effects in these engineered epitaxial heterostructures. Chapter 6 addresses the magneto-dielectric response, dielectric properties and ac conduction properties of the engineered biferroic heterostructures. In order to investigate the manifestation of strain mediated ME coupling in these heterostructures their dielectric response as a function of ac electric signal frequency have been studied under different static magnetic fields over a wide range of temperatures. The appearance of magneto-capacitance and its dependence on magnetic field strength and temperature along with the magnetoresistive characteristics of the heterostructures suggested that the charge depleted interfaces between PMN-PT and LSMO can have an effect on the observed dielectric response in addition to the probable strain mediated ME coupling. Dielectric characterization of the heterostructures performed over a wide range of temperature indicated a Maxwell-Wagner type relaxation mechanism. The manifestation of Maxwell-Wagner effect and the very low activation energy of ac conductivity obtained from the ac conduction studies revealed the strong influence of the charge depleted interfaces between PMN-PT and LSMO on the dielectric properties of the heterostructures. Chapter 7 deals with the dc leakage current conduction characteristics of the heterostructures. The leakage current characterization was performed over a wide range of temperature and analyzed in the framework of different models to investigate the leakage mechanism. All the heterostructures were found to obey the power law I∝Vα over the entire range of temperature with different values of α at different applied voltages. The bilayered heterostructures exhibited ohmic conduction in the lower electric field region and space charge limited conduction was observed at higher electric fields. On the other hand the low field dc conduction behaviour of the superlattices could not be attributed unambiguously to a single mechanism. Depending on the superlattice periodicity the low field conduction behaviour was dominated by either Poole-Frenkel (PF) emission or a combined contribution from the PF effect and ohmic conduction. At higher electric fields all the superlattices exhibited space charge limited conduction. Chapter 8 gives the summary and conclusions of the present study and also discusses about the future work that could give more insight into the understanding of the engineered epitaxial biferroic heterostructures.

High dielectric constant materials are of technological importance as they lead to the miniaturization of the electronic devices. In this context, the observation of anomalously high dielectric constant (>104) in the body-centered cubic perovskite-related (Space group Im3) material Calcium Copper Titanate ((CaCu3Ti4O12)(CCTO)) over wide frequency (100 Hz – 1MHz at RT) and temperature (100 – 600 K at 1 kHz ) ranges has attracted a great deal of attention. However, high dielectric constant in CCTO is not well understood yet, though internal barrier layer capacitor (IBLC) mechanism is widely been accepted. Therefore, the present work has been focused on the preparation and characterization of CCTO ceramic and to have an insight into the origin of high dielectric constant. Influence of calcination temperature, processing conditions, microstructure (and hence grain size), composition, doping etc on the electrical characteristics of CCTO ceramics were investigated. Electrical properties were found to be strongly dependent on these parameters. The dielectric constant in CCTO was observed to be reduced considerably on substituting La+3 on Ca+2 site. The formation temperature of CCTO was lowered substantially (when compared to conventional solid-state reaction route) by adopting molten-salt synthesis. The dielectric loss in CCTO was reduced by incorporating glassy phases at the grain boundary. Potential candidates for the practical applications such as charge storage devices, capacitors etc, with dielectric constant as high as 700 at 300 K was accomplished in a three-phase percolative composite fabricated by incorporating Aluminium particle into CCTO-epoxy composite. Polycrystalline CCTO thin films with dielectric constant as high as ~ 5000 (1 kHz and 400 K) were fabricated on Pt(111)/Ti/SiO2/Si substrates using radio frequency magnetron sputtering. Effect of sintering conditions on the microstructural, ferroelectric and varistor properties of CCTO and LCTO ceramics belonging to the high and low dielectric constant members of ACu3M4O12 family of oxides were investigated in detail and are compared. Ferroelectric-like hysteresis loop (P vs E) and weak pyroelectricity were observed in CCTO and plausible mechanisms for this unusual phenomenon have been proposed.