Ferroelectric properties of sol-gel derived Nd-doped SrBi4Ti4O15 thin films

Neodymium-doped strontium bismuth titanate (SrBi4-xNdxTi4O15) ferroelectric thin films were fabricated using the sol-gel method on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si substrates. The influence of Nd content on the microstructure and ferroelectric properties of SrBi4−xNdxTi4O15 thin films were systematically studied. The results indicated that the SrBi3.88Nd0.12Ti4O15 (SBNT0.12) thin films had better ferroelectric properties, with a remanent polarization of (2Pr) of 34.3 μC/cm2 and a coercive field (2Ec) of 220 kV/cm. This could be attributed to the fact that SBNT0.12 ferroelectric thin films consisted of more and larger ball-like grains, approximately 150–200 nm, with structure distortion, which greatly contributed to the improvement of the ferroelectric properties of the films. Furthermore, the film exhibited a good fatigue resistant property. The value of 2Pr after 1010 switching cycles did not change significantly. The SrBi3.88Nd0.12Ti4O15 films were promising candidates for the application of FeRAMs.