Variation In Mechanical Properties With Substrate Temperature Of SbTi Thin Film Deposited By RF Sputtering Technique

Nanoindentation technique has been used to determine the mechanical properties of bismuth layered structure ferroelectric thin films, which have been shown to be promising for MEMS based devices used in sensing, actuation and energy harvesting, especially at elevated temperatures. SBTi (SrBi4Ti4O15) is a promising layered ferroelectric material and thin films of this composition are deposited on amorphous fused silica substrates by rf sputtering technique varying the substrate temperature from 600–725 o C. The crystal structure and surface morphology of SBTi thin films are characterized by X-ray diffraction and atomic force microscopy. Depth- sensing nanoindentation system is used to measure the mechanical characteristics of SBTi thin films. Nanoindentation measurements reveal that the Young’s modulus and hardness of SBTi thin films are related with grain size and crystal orientation which in turn depend on substrate temperature. The increase in mechanical properties with grain size is