<p>Ferroelectrics are a group of advanced electronic materialswith a wide variety of properties useful in applications suchas memory devices, resonators and filters, infrared sensors,microelectromechanical systems, and optical waveguides andmodulators. Among the oxide perovskite-structured ferroelectricthin film materials sodium potassium niobate or Na0.5K0.5NbO3(NKN) has recently emerged as one of the most promisingmaterials in microwave applications due to high dielectrictunability and low dielectric loss. This licentiate thesispresents results on growth and structural, optical, andelectrical characterization of Na0.5K0.5NbO3 thin films. Thefilms were deposited by rf-magnetron sputtering of astoichiometric, high density, ceramic Na0.5K0.5NbO3 target ontosingle crystal LaAlO3 and Al2O3, and polycrystalline Pt80Ir20substrates. By x-ray diffractometry, NKN films on c-axisoriented LaAlO3 substrates were found to grow epitaxially,whereas films on hexagonal sapphire and polycrystallinePt80Ir20 substrates were found to be preferentially (00l)oriented. Optical and waveguiding properties of theNa0.5K0.5NbO3/Al2O3 heterostructure were characterized using aprism-coupling technique. Sharp and distinguishable transversemagnetic (TM) and electric (TE) propagation modes wereobserved. The extraordinary and ordinary refractive indiceswere calculated to ne = 2.216±0.003 and no =2.247±0.002 for a 2.0 μm thick film at λ = 632.8nm. This implies a birefringence Δn = ne - no =-0.031±0.003 in the film. The ferroelectric state inNKN/Pt80Ir20 films at room temperature was indicated by apolarization loop with polarization as high as 33.4 μC/cm2at 700 kV/cm, remnant polarization of 9.9 μC/cm2 andcoercive field of 91 kV/cm. Current-voltage characteristics ofvertical Au/NKN/Pt80Ir20 capacitive cells and planar Au/NKN/LaAlO3 interdigital capacitors (IDCs) showed very goodinsulating properties, with the leakage current density for anNKN IDC on the order of 30 nA/cm2 at 400 kV/cm. Rf dielectricspectroscopy demonstrated low loss, low frequency dispersion,and high voltage tunability. At 1 MHz NKN/LaAlO3 showed adissipation factor tan δ of 0.010 and a tunability of 16.5% at 200 kV/cm. For the same structure the frequencydispersion, Δεr, between 1 kHz and 1 MHz was 8.5%.</p><p><b>Key words:</b>ferroelectrics, sodium potassium niobates,thin films, rf-magnetron sputtering, waveguiding, refractiveindex, prism coupling, dielectric tunability</p>

<p>Microwave materials have been widely used in a variety of applications ranging from communication devices to military satellite services, and the study of materials properties at microwave frequencies and the development of functional microwave materials have always been among the most active areas in solid-state physics, materials science, and electrical and electronic engineering. In recent years, the increasing requirements for the development of high speed, high frequency circuits and systems require complete understanding of the properties of materials function at microwave frequencies.</p><p>Ferroelectric materials usually have high dielectric constants, and their dielectric properties are temperature and electric field dependent. The change in permittivity as a function of electric field is the key to a wide range of applications. Ferroelectric materials can be used in fabrication capacitors for electronic industry because of their high dielectric constants, and this is important in the trend toward miniaturization and high functionality of electronic products. The simple tunable passive component based on ferroelectric films is a varactor which can be made as a planar structure, and electrically tunable microwave integrated circuits using ferroelectric thin films can be developed. Therefore, it is very important to characterize the dielectric constant and tunability of ferroelectric thin films.</p><p>This thesis shows experimental results for growth, crystalline properties and microwave characterization of Na0.5K0.5NbO3 (NKN), AgTa0.5Nb0.5O3 (ATN), Ba0.5Sr0.5TiO3 (BST) as well as AgTaO3 (ATO), AgNbO3 (ANO) thin films. The films were grown by Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) and rf-magnetron sputtering of a stoichiometric, high density, ceramic NKN, ATN, BST target onto single crystal LaAlO3(LAO), Al2O3 (sapphire), and Nd:YAlO3, and amorphous glass substrates. By x-ray diffractometry, NKN, ATN, BST films on LAO substrates were found to grow epitaxially, whereas films on r-cut sapphire substrates were found to be preferentially (00l) oriented.</p><p>Coplanar waveguide interdigital capacitor (CPWIDC) structures were fabricated by standard photolithography processing and metal lift-off technique. Microwave properties of the NKN/Sapphire and ATN/Sapphire with CPW structures were characterized using on-wafer microwave measurement technique. Measurement setup is composed of network analyzer, probe station, and microwave G-S-G probes. External electric field through the connection between network analyzer and power supply was applied to measure voltage tunability. Measured S-parameter were used for the calculation of capacitance, loss tanδ, tunability and K-factor.</p><p>The NKN films interdigital capacitors with 2 μm finger gap on Nd:YAlO3 showed superior performance compared to ATN in the microwave range from 1 to 40 GHz. Within this range, the voltage tunability (40V, 200 kV/cm) was about 29%, loss tangent ∼ 0.13, K-factor = tunability/tanδ from 152% @ 10GHz to 46% @ 40GHz.</p><p>The microwave performance of ATN film CPWIDC with 2 μm finger gap on sapphire substrate in the microwave range from 1 to 40 GHz showed that frequency dispersion is about 4.3%, voltage tunability was 4.7% @ 20GHz and 200 kV/cm, loss tangent ∼ 0.068 @ 20GHz, K-factor = tunability/tanδ is ranged from 124% @ 10GHz to 35% @ 40GHz.</p><p>The BST films CPWIDC with 2μmfinger gap on Al2O3 substrate showed frequency dispersion of capacitance in the microwave range from 1 to 40 GHz about 17%, voltage tunability = 1 - C(40V)/C(0) ∼ 22.2%, loss tangent ∼ 0.137 @ 20GHz, and K-factor = tunability/tanδ from 281% @ 10GHz to 95% @ 40GHz.</p>

Ferroelectrics are a group of advanced electronic materialswith a wide variety of properties useful in applications suchas memory devices, resonators and filters, infrared sensors,microelectromechanical systems, and optical waveguides andmodulators. Among the oxide perovskite-structured ferroelectricthin film materials sodium potassium niobate or Na0.5K0.5NbO3(NKN) has recently emerged as one of the most promisingmaterials in microwave applications due to high dielectrictunability and low dielectric loss. This licentiate thesispresents results on growth and structural, optical, andelectrical characterization of Na0.5K0.5NbO3 thin films. Thefilms were deposited by rf-magnetron sputtering of astoichiometric, high density, ceramic Na0.5K0.5NbO3 target ontosingle crystal LaAlO3 and Al2O3, and polycrystalline Pt80Ir20substrates. By x-ray diffractometry, NKN films on c-axisoriented LaAlO3 substrates were found to grow epitaxially,whereas films on hexagonal sapphire and polycrystallinePt80Ir20 substrates were found to be preferentially (00l)oriented. Optical and waveguiding properties of theNa0.5K0.5NbO3/Al2O3 heterostructure were characterized using aprism-coupling technique. Sharp and distinguishable transversemagnetic (TM) and electric (TE) propagation modes wereobserved. The extraordinary and ordinary refractive indiceswere calculated to ne = 2.216±0.003 and no =2.247±0.002 for a 2.0 μm thick film at λ = 632.8nm. This implies a birefringence Δn = ne - no =-0.031±0.003 in the film. The ferroelectric state inNKN/Pt80Ir20 films at room temperature was indicated by apolarization loop with polarization as high as 33.4 μC/cm2at 700 kV/cm, remnant polarization of 9.9 μC/cm2 andcoercive field of 91 kV/cm. Current-voltage characteristics ofvertical Au/NKN/Pt80Ir20 capacitive cells and planar Au/NKN/LaAlO3 interdigital capacitors (IDCs) showed very goodinsulating properties, with the leakage current density for anNKN IDC on the order of 30 nA/cm2 at 400 kV/cm. Rf dielectricspectroscopy demonstrated low loss, low frequency dispersion,and high voltage tunability. At 1 MHz NKN/LaAlO3 showed adissipation factor tan δ of 0.010 and a tunability of 16.5% at 200 kV/cm. For the same structure the frequencydispersion, Δεr, between 1 kHz and 1 MHz was 8.5%. <b>Key words:</b>ferroelectrics, sodium potassium niobates,thin films, rf-magnetron sputtering, waveguiding, refractiveindex, prism coupling, dielectric tunability / NR 20140805

Microwave materials have been widely used in a variety of applications ranging from communication devices to military satellite services, and the study of materials properties at microwave frequencies and the development of functional microwave materials have always been among the most active areas in solid-state physics, materials science, and electrical and electronic engineering. In recent years, the increasing requirements for the development of high speed, high frequency circuits and systems require complete understanding of the properties of materials function at microwave frequencies. Ferroelectric materials usually have high dielectric constants, and their dielectric properties are temperature and electric field dependent. The change in permittivity as a function of electric field is the key to a wide range of applications. Ferroelectric materials can be used in fabrication capacitors for electronic industry because of their high dielectric constants, and this is important in the trend toward miniaturization and high functionality of electronic products. The simple tunable passive component based on ferroelectric films is a varactor which can be made as a planar structure, and electrically tunable microwave integrated circuits using ferroelectric thin films can be developed. Therefore, it is very important to characterize the dielectric constant and tunability of ferroelectric thin films. This thesis shows experimental results for growth, crystalline properties and microwave characterization of Na0.5K0.5NbO3 (NKN), AgTa0.5Nb0.5O3 (ATN), Ba0.5Sr0.5TiO3 (BST) as well as AgTaO3 (ATO), AgNbO3 (ANO) thin films. The films were grown by Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) and rf-magnetron sputtering of a stoichiometric, high density, ceramic NKN, ATN, BST target onto single crystal LaAlO3(LAO), Al2O3 (sapphire), and Nd:YAlO3, and amorphous glass substrates. By x-ray diffractometry, NKN, ATN, BST films on LAO substrates were found to grow epitaxially, whereas films on r-cut sapphire substrates were found to be preferentially (00l) oriented. Coplanar waveguide interdigital capacitor (CPWIDC) structures were fabricated by standard photolithography processing and metal lift-off technique. Microwave properties of the NKN/Sapphire and ATN/Sapphire with CPW structures were characterized using on-wafer microwave measurement technique. Measurement setup is composed of network analyzer, probe station, and microwave G-S-G probes. External electric field through the connection between network analyzer and power supply was applied to measure voltage tunability. Measured S-parameter were used for the calculation of capacitance, loss tanδ, tunability and K-factor. The NKN films interdigital capacitors with 2 μm finger gap on Nd:YAlO3 showed superior performance compared to ATN in the microwave range from 1 to 40 GHz. Within this range, the voltage tunability (40V, 200 kV/cm) was about 29%, loss tangent ∼ 0.13, K-factor = tunability/tanδ from 152% @ 10GHz to 46% @ 40GHz. The microwave performance of ATN film CPWIDC with 2 μm finger gap on sapphire substrate in the microwave range from 1 to 40 GHz showed that frequency dispersion is about 4.3%, voltage tunability was 4.7% @ 20GHz and 200 kV/cm, loss tangent ∼ 0.068 @ 20GHz, K-factor = tunability/tanδ is ranged from 124% @ 10GHz to 35% @ 40GHz. The BST films CPWIDC with 2μmfinger gap on Al2O3 substrate showed frequency dispersion of capacitance in the microwave range from 1 to 40 GHz about 17%, voltage tunability = 1 - C(40V)/C(0) ∼ 22.2%, loss tangent ∼ 0.137 @ 20GHz, and K-factor = tunability/tanδ from 281% @ 10GHz to 95% @ 40GHz. / QC 20101207

Microwave materials have been widely used in a variety of applications ranging from communication devices to military satellite services, and the study of materials properties at microwave frequencies and the development of functional microwave materials have always been among the most active areas in solid-state physics, materials science, electrical and electronic engineering. In recent years, the increasing requirements for the development of high speed, high frequency circuits and systems require complete understanding of the properties of materials function at microwave frequencies. Ferroelectric materials usually have high dielectric constant, and their dielectric properties are temperature and electric field dependent. The change in permittivity as a function of electric field is the key to a wide range of applications. Ferroelectric materials can be used to fabricate capacitors for electronic industry because of their high dielectric constant, and this is important in the trend toward miniaturization and high functionality of electronic products. The simple tunable passive component based on ferroelectric films is a varactor which can be made as a planar structure and used for electrically tunable microwave integrated circuits. It is an important task to sinter highly tunable and low loss ferroelectrics, fabricate and test the properties of microwave ferroelectric components. This thesis shows experimental results on growth, crystalline and microwave properties of Na0.5K0.5NbO3 (NKN), AgTa0.5Nb0.5O3 (ATN), Ba0.5Sr0.5TiO3 (BST) as well as AgTaO3 (ATO), and AgNbO3 (ANO) thin films. The films were grown by Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) and rf-magnetron sputtering techniques from stoichiometric high density ceramic NKN, ATN, ATO, ANO and BST targets onto LaAlO3 (LAO), Al2O3 (r-cut sapphire), Nd:YAlO3 single crystals and amorphous glass substrates. Advanced X-ray diffraction examinations showed NKN, ATN, BST films on LAO substrates grow epitaxially, whereas films on r-cut sapphire were found to be preferentially (00l) oriented. Coplanar waveguide 2 µm finger gap interdigital capacitor (CPWIDC) structures were fabricated by photolithography process and metal lift-off technique. On-wafer tests up to 40 GHz were performed to characterize microwave properties of the ferromagnetic film CPWIDC devices. The measurement setup is composed of network analyzer, probe station, and microwave G-S-G probes. External electric field was applied to planar capacitors to measure tunability. Original de-embedding technique has been developed to calculate capacitance, loss tan δ, and tunability of varactors from the measured S-parameters. NKN film interdigital capacitors on Nd:YAlO3 showed superior performance compared to ATN in the microwave range from 1 to 40 GHz. Within this range, the voltage tunability (40V, 200 kV/cm) was about 29%, loss tangent ~ 0.13, K-factor = tunability/tan δ from 152% @ 10GHz to 46% @ 40GHz. The ATN/sapphire CPWIDCs showed the lowest dispersion ~ 4.3% in whole frequency range from 1 to 40 GHz, voltage tunability 4.7% @ 20GHz and 200 kV/cm, lowest loss tangent ~ 0.068 @ 20GHz, K-factor = tunability/tan δ ranged from 124% @ 10GHz to 35% @ 40GHz. BST film CPWIDCs on sapphire showed frequency about 17%, the highest voltage tunability ~ 22.2%, loss tangent ~ 0.137 @ 20GHz, and K-factor = 281% @ 10GHz to 95% @ 40GHz. / QC 20100906

Ferroelectric oxides are a group of advanced electronic materials with a wide variety of properties useful in applications such as memory devices, resonators and filters, infrared sensors, microelectromechanical systems, and optical waveguides and modulators. Among the oxide perovskite-structured ferroelectric thin film materials, sodium potassium niobate or Na0.5K0.5NbO3 (NKN) has recently emerged as one of the most promising materials in radio frequency (rf) and microwave applications due to high dielectric tenability and low dielectric loss. This thesis presents results on growth and structural, optical, and electrical characterization of NKN thin films. The films were deposited by rf-magnetron sputtering of a stoichiometric, high density, ceramic Na0.5K0.5NbO3 target onto single crystal LaAlO3 (LAO), Al2O3 (sapphire), SrTiO3, and Nd:YAlO3, and polycrystalline Pt80Ir20 substrates. By x-ray diffractometry, NKN films on c-axis oriented LaAlO3, SrTiO3 and Nd:YAlO3 substrates were found to grow epitaxially, whereas films on r-cut sapphire and polycrystalline Pt80Ir20 substrates were found to be preferentially (00l) oriented. The surface morphology was explored using atomic force microscopy. Optical and waveguiding properties of the Na0.5K0.5NbO3/substrate heterostructures were characterized using prism-coupling technique. Sharp and distinguishable transverse magnetic and electric propagation modes were observed for NKN thicknesses up to 2.0 μm. The extraordinary and ordinary refractive indices were calculated together with the birefringence of the NKN material. The electro-optic effect in transverse geometry was measured in transmission, where the effective linear electro-optic response was determined to reff = 28 pm/V for NKN/Al2O3 with an applied dc field up to 18 kV/cm. The ferroelectric state in NKN films on Pt80Ir20 at room temperature was indicated by a polarization loop with saturated polarization as high as 33.4 μC/cm2 at 700 kV/cm, remnant polarization of 10 μC/cm2, and coercive field of 90 kV/cm. Current-voltage characteristics of vertical Au/NKN/PtIr capacitive cells and planar Au/NKN/LAO interdigital capacitors (IDCs) showed very good insulating properties, with the leakage current density for an NKN IDC on the order of 30 nA/cm2 at 400 kV/cm. Rf dielectric spectroscopy demonstrated low loss, low frequency dispersion, and high voltage tunability. At 1 MHz, NKN/LAO showed a dissipation factor tan δ = 0.010 and a tunability of 16.5 % at 200 kV/cm. For the same structure the frequency dispersion was Δεr = 8.5 % between 1 kHz and 1 MHz. / QC 20100928