The Impact of Grain Growth on the Functional Properties in Room-Temperature Powder Aerosol Deposited Free-Standing (Ba,Ca)(Zr,Ti)O<sub>3</sub> Thick Films
Juliana G. Maier,
Tim Fuggerer,
Daisuke Urushihara,
Alexander Martin,
Neamul H. Khansur,
Ken-ichi Kakimoto,
Kyle G. Webber
Affiliations
Juliana G. Maier
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Martensstraße 5, 91058 Erlangen, Germany
Tim Fuggerer
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Martensstraße 5, 91058 Erlangen, Germany
Daisuke Urushihara
Department of Life Science and Applied Chemistry, Nagoya Institute of Technology, Nagoya 466-8555, Japan
Alexander Martin
Department of Life Science and Applied Chemistry, Nagoya Institute of Technology, Nagoya 466-8555, Japan
Neamul H. Khansur
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Martensstraße 5, 91058 Erlangen, Germany
Ken-ichi Kakimoto
Department of Life Science and Applied Chemistry, Nagoya Institute of Technology, Nagoya 466-8555, Japan
Kyle G. Webber
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Martensstraße 5, 91058 Erlangen, Germany
This study investigates the development of freestanding thick films (FSFs) of lead-free (Ba,Ca)(Zr,Ti)O3 and the role of grain growth on the electromechanical response. During deposition, room temperature powder aerosol deposition rapidly produces thick films with a nano-grain structure that limits the electromechanical properties. In this study, the films are removed from the substrate using a sacrificial buffering layer to avoid thermal treatment and allow for an initial as-processed state. Following this, FSFs were thermally treated at various annealing temperatures from 800 °C to 1400 °C to induce grain growth, which was characterized with scanning and transmission electron microscopy. X-ray diffraction revealed an increase in the crystallite size consistent with an increase in grain size and a decrease in internal residual stress. The temperature-dependent dielectric behavior and the large-field ferroelectric response were also characterized, revealing significant differences of the FSFs from the bulk properties.
