Microstructure and ferroelectricity of BaTiO 3 thin films on Si for integrated photonics
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Abstract Significant progress has been made in integrating novel materials into silicon photonic structures in order to extend the functionality of photonic circuits. One of these promising optical materials is BaTiO 3 or barium titanate (BTO) that exhibits a very large Pockels coefficient as required for high-speed light modulators. However, all previous demonstrations show a noticable reduction of the Pockels effect in BTO thin films deposited on silicon substrates compared to BTO bulk crystals. Here, we report on the strong dependence of the Pockels effect in BTO thin films on their microstructure, and provide guidelines on how to engineer thin films with strong electro-optic response. We employ several deposition methods such as molecular beam epitaxy and chemical vapor deposition to realize BTO thin films with different morphology and crystalline structure. While a linear electro-optic response is present even in porous, polycrystalline BTO thin films with an effective Pockels coefficient r eff = 6 pm V −1 , it is maximized for dense, tetragonal, epitaxial BTO films ( r eff = 140 pm V −1 ). By identifying the key structural predictors of electro-optic response in BTO/Si, we provide a roadmap to fully exploit the linear electro-optic effect in novel hybrid oxide/semiconductor nanophotonic devices.
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Crystalline quality and optical properties of BTO epitaxial films critically depend on lattice-substrate matching and the use of buffer thin films to avoid polycrystalline phases.
“where the crystalline quality and optical properties critically depend on lattice-substrate matching and the use of buffer thin films to avoid the formation of polycrystalline phases [213,215].”
From Metal Oxide Thin Films for Advanced Photonic Applications (2026) · cites this paper as [213]
Structural Characterization (page not available) reports that an STO buffer preserves BTO epitaxy, while BTO sputtered directly onto Si is fully polycrystalline. It also notes that a buffer does not always prevent randomly oriented or polycrystalline domains. The Conclusion links structural quality to electro-optic response, but the paper does not establish lattice–substrate matching as a critical determinant of the claimed properties. (LLM, conf=0.85)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe effective Pockels response is either not dependent or only weakly dependent on the relaxation of the BTO beyond a certain point for sufficiently thick films.
“This indicates that the effective Pockels response is either not dependent or only weakly dependent on the relaxation of the BTO beyond a certain point for sufficiently thick films 24 .”
From Enhancement of Electro-Optic Response in BaTiO3 Films Integrated on Si via Heating and Cooling Rate Control (2025) · cites this paper as [24]
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“…devices is predominantly based on ultra-high-vacuum techniques, such as (MBE) [209,210] and ALD, but also on other techniques (e.g., PLD [211–213], sputtering [214]), where the crystalline quality and optical properties critically depend on lattice–substrate matching and the use of buffer…”
- Authors
- Kormondy, K. J., Popoff, Y., Sousa, M., Eltes, F., Caimi, D., Rossell, M. D., Fiebig, M., Hoffmann, P., Marchiori, C., Reinke, M., Trassin, M., Demkov, A. A., Fompeyrine, J., & Abel, S.
- Affiliations
- The University of Texas at Austin (US)
- IBM Research - Zurich (CH)
- Empa (CH)
- ETH Zurich (CH)
- École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (CH)
- ORCID
- Venue
- Nanotechnology
- Publisher
- IOP Publishing
- Published
- 2017-01-13
- Volume
- 28
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 075706
- ISSN
- 0957-4484 (ISSN-L)
- 1361-6528
- OpenAlex
- W2560996255
- Cited by
- 111
- References
- 46
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 16 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 16 · 2017: 2
- FWCI
- 4.60
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.dora.lib4ri.ch
- Licence
- Locations
- Nanotechnology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DORA Empa (Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa)) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Infoscience (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) (submittedVersion)
- Infoscience (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Office of International Science and Engineering (1358111)
- Horizon 2020 (H2020-ICT-2015-25-688579 PHRESCO)
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research (FA9550-12-10494)
- Seventh Framework Programme (FP7-ICT-2013-11-619456-SITOGA)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Materials Chemistry › Ferroelectric and Piezoelectric Materials
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics › Photorefractive and Nonlinear Optics
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials › Multiferroics and related materials
- Keywords
- barium titanate, BaTiO3 thin films, ferroelectricity, Pockels effect, electro-optic response, silicon photonics, microstructure, epitaxial thin films, porous thin films, polycrystalline films, tetragonal phase, optical modulators, molecular beam epitaxy, chemical vapor deposition
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