Tuning piezoelectric properties through epitaxy of La2Ti2O7 and related thin films

Tiffany C. Kaspar; Seungbum Hong; Mark E. Bowden; Tamas Varga; Pengfei Yan; Chongmin Wang; Steven R. Spurgeon; Ryan B. Comes; Pradeep Ramuhalli; Charles H. Henager

doi:10.1038/s41598-018-21009-5

Tuning piezoelectric properties through epitaxy of La₂Ti₂O₇ and related thin films

Tiffany C. Kaspar, Seungbum Hong, Mark E. Bowden, Tamas Varga, Pengfei Yan, Chongmin Wang, Steven R. Spurgeon, Ryan B. Comes, Pradeep Ramuhalli, Charles H. Henager

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Abstract

Current piezoelectric sensors and actuators are limited to operating temperatures less than ~200 °C due to the low Curie temperature of the piezoelectric material. Strengthening the piezoelectric coupling of high-temperature piezoelectric materials, such as La₂Ti₂O₇ (LTO), would allow sensors to operate across a broad temperature range. The crystalline orientation and piezoelectric coupling direction of LTO thin films can be controlled by epitaxial matching to SrTiO₃(001), SrTiO₃(110), and rutile TiO₂(110) substrates via pulsed laser deposition. The structure and phase purity of the films are investigated by x-ray diffraction and scanning transmission electron microscopy. Piezoresponse force microscopy is used to measure the in-plane and out-of-plane piezoelectric coupling in the films. The strength of the out-of-plane piezoelectric coupling can be increased when the piezoelectric direction is rotated partially out-of-plane via epitaxy. The strongest out-of-plane coupling is observed for LTO/STO(001). Deposition on TiO₂(110) results in epitaxial La_2/3TiO₃, an orthorhombic perovskite of interest as a microwave dielectric material and an ion conductor. La_2/3TiO₃ can be difficult to stabilize in bulk form, and epitaxial stabilization on TiO₂(110) is a promising route to realize La_2/3TiO₃ for both fundamental studies and device applications. Overall, these results confirm that control of the crystalline orientation of epitaxial LTO-based materials can govern the resulting functional properties.

Original language	English
Article number	3037
Journal	Scientific Reports
Volume	8
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-21009-5
State	Published - Dec 1 2018
Externally published	Yes

Funding

The authors acknowledge fruitful discussions with Dr. Y. Du (PNNL) and Dr. P. Scheiderer (Universität Würzburg). The research described in this paper was conducted under the Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), a multiprogram national laboratory operated by Battelle for the U.S. Department of Energy. RBC was supported by the Linus Pauling Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowship at PNNL (PNNL LDRD PN13100/2581). SH was supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division. A portion of this research was performed using EMSL, a national scientific user facility sponsored by the Department of Energy’s Office of Biological and Environmental Research and located at PNNL.

Funders	Funder number
Office of Basic Energy Sciences
Office of Biological and Environmental Research
US Department of Energy
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Science
Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering

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title = "Tuning piezoelectric properties through epitaxy of La2Ti2O7 and related thin films",

abstract = "Current piezoelectric sensors and actuators are limited to operating temperatures less than ~200 °C due to the low Curie temperature of the piezoelectric material. Strengthening the piezoelectric coupling of high-temperature piezoelectric materials, such as La2Ti2O7 (LTO), would allow sensors to operate across a broad temperature range. The crystalline orientation and piezoelectric coupling direction of LTO thin films can be controlled by epitaxial matching to SrTiO3(001), SrTiO3(110), and rutile TiO2(110) substrates via pulsed laser deposition. The structure and phase purity of the films are investigated by x-ray diffraction and scanning transmission electron microscopy. Piezoresponse force microscopy is used to measure the in-plane and out-of-plane piezoelectric coupling in the films. The strength of the out-of-plane piezoelectric coupling can be increased when the piezoelectric direction is rotated partially out-of-plane via epitaxy. The strongest out-of-plane coupling is observed for LTO/STO(001). Deposition on TiO2(110) results in epitaxial La2/3TiO3, an orthorhombic perovskite of interest as a microwave dielectric material and an ion conductor. La2/3TiO3 can be difficult to stabilize in bulk form, and epitaxial stabilization on TiO2(110) is a promising route to realize La2/3TiO3 for both fundamental studies and device applications. Overall, these results confirm that control of the crystalline orientation of epitaxial LTO-based materials can govern the resulting functional properties.",

author = "Kaspar, {Tiffany C.} and Seungbum Hong and Bowden, {Mark E.} and Tamas Varga and Pengfei Yan and Chongmin Wang and Spurgeon, {Steven R.} and Comes, {Ryan B.} and Pradeep Ramuhalli and Henager, {Charles H.}",

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Tuning piezoelectric properties through epitaxy of La₂Ti₂O₇ and related thin films

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