Densification Mechanism of BaTiO3 Films on Cu Substrates Fabricated by Aerosol Deposition

Abstract

In order to achieve the aerosol deposition (AD) process as a thin film deposition process, the densification mechanism of the AD process was investigated. BaTiO3 films with thicknesses of 0.2, 0.5, and 2 mu m on Cu substrates were fabricated using the AD process at room temperature in order to investigate the densification mechanism according to the increased the film thickness; we also investigated the resulting properties, including the microstructure, the electrical properties, and the hardness. As a result, we confirmed that the enhanced hammering effect (which is a densification procedure that works by continuous impaction of ceramic particles onto pre-impacted particles), formed dense BaTiO3 films with greater hardness and decreased leakage current characteristics. Furthermore, we concluded that the BaTiO3 particles, which were sufficiently fractured due to the hammering effect, were important in fabricating the dense BaTiO3 thin films. Therefore, we suggested the two-step deposition method (deposition and etching).