In this study, KTN heterolayer thin films were fabricated by alternately stacking films of K(Ta0.70Nb0.30)O3 and K(Ta0.55Nb0.45)O3 synthesized using the sol-gel method. The sintering temperature and time were 750℃ and 1 hour, respectively. All specimens exhibited a polycrystalline pseudo-cubic crystal structure, with a lattice constant of approximately 0.398 nm. The average grain size was around 130~150 nm, indicating relatively uniform sizes regardless of the number of coatings. The average thickness of a single-coated film was approximately 70 nm. The phase transition temperature of the KTN heterolayer films was found to be approximately 8~12℃. Moreover, the 6-coated KTN heterolayer film displayed an excellent dielectric constant of about 11,000. As the number of coatings increased, and consequently the film thickness, the remanent polarization increased, while the coercive field decreased. The 6-coated KTN heterolayer film exhibited a remanent polarization and coercive field of 11.4 μC/cm2 and 69.3 kV/cm at room temperature, respectively. ΔT showed the highest value at a temperature slightly above the Curie temperature, and for the 6-coated KTN heterolayer film, the ΔT and ΔT/ΔE were approximately 1.93 K and 0.128×10-6 K·m/V around 40℃, respectively.
(La0.7Sr0.3)(Mn1-xFex)O3 (LSMFO) (x = 0.03, 0.06, 0.09, 0.12) precursor solution are prepared by sol-gel method. LSMFO thin films are fabricated by the spin-coating method on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si substrate, and the sintering temperature and time are 800℃ and 1 hr, respectively. The average thickness of the 6-times coated LSMFO films is about 181 to 190 nm and average grain size is about 18 to 20 nm. As the amount of Fe added in the LSMFO thin film increased, the resistivity decreased, and the TCR and B25/65-value increased. Electrical resistivity, TCR and B25/65-value of the (La0.7Sr0.3)(Mn0.88Fe0.12)O3 thin film are 0.0136 mΩ-cm, 0.358%/℃, and 328 K at room temperature, respectively. The resistivity properties of LSMFO thin films matched well with Mott’s VRH model.
La0.7Sr0.3-xMgxMnO3 (LSMMO) (x=0.05~0.20) specimens are fabricated by a solid phase sintering method, and the sintering temperature and time are 1,300℃ and 2 hours, respectively. The dependence of the crystalline structure according to the amount of Mg2+ contents is not observed, and all specimens show a polycrystalline rhombohedral crystal structure, the X-ray diffraction (110) peaks move to the high angle side with increasing the amount of Mg2+ contents. LSMMO specimens exhibit a granule-shaped microstructure with an average grain size of 1 μm or less. Resistivity gradually decrease as the amount of Mg2+ contents increased. And in the La0.7Sr0.1Mg0.2MnO3 specimen, resistivity and B25/65-value are 36.7 Ω-cm and 394 K at room temperature, respectively. LSMMO specimens show a variable-range hopping (VRH) electrical conduction mechanism, and the negative temperature of coefficient of resistance (NTCR) is approximately 0.37~0.38%/℃.
La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 precursor solution were prepared by a sol-gel method. La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 thin films were fabricated by a spin-coating method on a Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si substrate. Structural and electrical properties with the variation of sintering temperature were measured. All specimens exhibited a polycrystalline orthorhombic crystal structure, and the average thickness of the specimens coated 6 times decreased from about 427 nm to 383 nm as the sintering temperature increased from 740℃ to 830℃. Electrical resistance decreased as the sintering temperature increased. In the La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 thin films sintered at 830℃, electrical resistivity, TCR, B-value, and activation energy were 0.0374 mΩㆍcm, 0.316%/℃, 296 K and 0.023 eV, respectively.
(La0.5Nd0.2Sr0.3)MnO3 specimens were prepared by a solid-state reaction. In all specimens, X-ray diffraction patterns of an orthorhombic structure were shown. The fracture surfaces of (La0.5Nd0.2Sr0.3)MnO3 specimens showed a transgranular fracture pattern be possibly due to La ions (0.122 nm) as a perovskite A-site dopant substituting for Nd ions (0.115 nm) having a small ionic radius. The full-width at half maximum (FWHM) of the Mn 2p XPS spectra showed a value greater than that [8] of the single valence state, which is believed to be due to the overlapping of Mn2+, Mn3+, and Mn4+ ions. The dependence of Mn 2p spectra on the Mn3+/Mn4+ ratio according to sintering time was not observed. Electrical resistivity resulted in the minimum value of 100.7 Ω-cm for the specimen sintered for 9 hours. All specimens show a typical negative temperature coefficient of resistance (NTCR) characteristics. In the 9-hour sintered specimen, TCR, activation energy, and B25/65-value were -1.24%/℃, 0.19 eV, and 2,445 K, respectively.
In this study, ZnxMn3-xO4 (x=0.95~1.20) specimens were prepared by using a conventional mixed oxide method. All specimens were sintered in air at 1,200℃ for 12 h and cooled at a rate of 2℃/min to 800℃, subsequently quenching to room temperature. We investigated the structural and electrical properties of ZnxMn3-xO4 specimens with variation of ZnO amount for the application of NTC thermistors. As results of X-ray diffraction patterns, all specimens showed the formation of a complete solid solution with tetragonal spinel phase. And, the second phase was observed by the solubility limit of Zn ions in x≥1.10 composition. The average grain size was increased from 2.72 μm to 4.18 μm with increasing the compositional ratio of Zn ion from x=0.95 to 1.20, respectively. Zn1.10 Mn1.90 O4 specimen showed the minimum electrical resistance of 57.5 kΩ at room temperature and activation energy of 0.392 eV.
In this study, lead-free (Na0.465K0.465Bi0.07)(Nb0.93Ti0.07)O3-0.08MnO2 ceramics were fabricated by conventional mixed oxide method. Structural and electrical properties of lead-free (Na0.465K0.465Bi0.07)(Nb0.93Ti0.07)O3-0.08MnO2 ceramics with the variation of sintering temperature were investigated. As results of x-ray diffraction analysis, all specimens showed a typical polycrystalline perovskite structure without presence of the second phase. Sintered density increased with an increases of sintering temperature and the specimen sintered at 1,020℃ showed the maximum value of 4.5 g/cm3. The average grain size of the (Na0.465K0.465Bi0.07)(Nb0.93Ti0.07)O3-0.08MnO2 specimen sintered at 1,020℃ is about 0.83 μm. Electromechanical coupling factor, relative dielectric constant and dielectric loss of (Na0.465K0.465Bi0.07)(Nb0.93Ti0.07)O3-0.08MnO2 specimens sintered at 1,020℃ were 0.252, 741 and 0.043% respectively.
In this paper, the properties of SnZnO films obtained from solution process with different component fractions were compared. The thermal behavior of the SnZnO solutions showed only a slight change according to the component fraction change. However, the definite changes were revealed at the structural properties of the SnZnO films. With diverse analyses, the origin of the changes was proved to the influence of phase change from SnO2 to ZnO in SnZnO lattice. With the SnO2-phase-dominant SnZnO, the highest field effect mobility and on/off ratio of about 8.6 cm2/Vs and 2 × 108 were achieved, respectively.