Metal-organic chemical vapor deposition of ferroelectric oxide thin films for electronic and optical applications

Thin films of ferroelectric oxides, particularly BaTiO₃ and its solid state solution with SrTiO₃, hold the possiblity of use in microelectronic, electrooptic, and nonlinear optic applications. Many of these applications require thin films that are textured or epitaxial. Synthesis of these ferroelectrics has centered on physical vapor deposition techniques such as magnetron sputtering, molecular beam epitaxy, laser ablation, and activated reactive evaporation. An alternative, powerful approach is metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). This deposition method has produced films of BaTiO₃ with ferroelectric, electro-optic, and nonlinear optical properties approaching that of bulk.