Novel fractal analysis of nanograin growth in BaTiO3 thin film

Abstract

The grain size and the ferroelectric morphology are the two most important factors in the research and development of advanced dielectric devices. It is important to synthesize nanostructures in order to achieve optimal grain size and inhibit grain growth while controlling the sintering parameters. It is also important to find new methods to study the grain growth during densification. BaTiO3 films were successfully obtained via the sol-gel spin coating method. In this paper, we report the deposition of nanostructured BaTiO3 thin film by spin coating of sol-gel precursors. The densification, grain growth and microstructure evolution have been studied. Moreover, a novel physical and mathematical fractal analysis have been applied successfully to the densification and nano grain growth of BaTiO3 thin film. The discrepancy between the fractal dimension and the grain growth with increasing temperatures and soaking time are presented and discussed.