Enhanced dielectric and piezoelectric responses in Zn1-xMgxO thin films near the phase separation boundary

Kang, Xiaoyu; Shetty, Smitha; Garten, Lauren; Ihlefeld, Jon F.; Trolier-McKinstry, Susan; Maria, Jon -Paul

doi:10.1063/1.4973756

Enhanced dielectric and piezoelectric responses in Zn₁_-xMg_xO thin films near the phase separation boundary

Journal Article · Mon Jan 23 00:00:00 EST 2017 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4973756· OSTI ID:1346412

Kang, Xiaoyu ^[1]; Shetty, Smitha ^[2]; Garten, Lauren ^[2]; Ihlefeld, Jon F. ^[3]; Trolier-McKinstry, Susan ^[2]; Maria, Jon -Paul ^[1]

North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC (United States)
Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States)
Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

Dielectric and piezoelectric properties for Zn_1-xMg_xO (ZMO) thin films are reported as a function of MgO composition up to and including the phase separation region. Zn_1-xMg_xO (0.25 ≤ x ≤ 0.5) thin films with c-axis textures were deposited by pulsed laser deposition on platinized sapphire substrates. The films were phase pure wurtzite for MgO concentrations up to 40%; above that limit, a second phase with rocksalt structure evolves with strong {100} texture. With increasing MgO concentration, the out-of-plane (d_33,f) and in-plane (e_31,f) piezoelectric coefficients increase by 360% and 290%, respectively. The increase in piezoelectric coefficients is accompanied by a 35% increase in relative permittivity. Loss tangent values fall monotonically with increasing MgO concentration, reaching a minimum of 0.001 for x ≥ 0.30, at which point the band gap is reported to be 4 eV. As a result, the enhanced piezoelectric response, the large band gap, and the low dielectric loss make Zn_1-xMg_xO an interesting candidate for thin film piezoelectric devices, and demonstrate that compositional phase transformations provide opportunities for property engineering.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC04-94AL85000

OSTI ID:: 1346412

Report Number(s):: SAND--2017-2113J; 651146

Journal Information:: Applied Physics Letters, Journal Name: Applied Physics Letters Journal Issue: 4 Vol. 110; ISSN 0003-6951

Publisher:: American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited By (2)

Enhanced Piezoelectric Response of AlN via CrN Alloying Manna, Sukriti; Talley, Kevin R.; Gorai, Prashun Physical Review Applied, Vol. 9, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevapplied.9.034026	journal	March 2018
Enhanced piezoelectric response of AlN via CrN alloying Manna, Sukriti; Talley, Kevin R.; Gorai, Prashun arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1708.00490	text	January 2017

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