Epitaxial BaTiO3 thin films on MgO

The epitaxy of thin films of BaTiO3 is motivated by the potential integrati on of electrooptical functions onto silicon. An epitaxial buffer layer of M gO on Si will be needed for optical waveguide formation and for enabling th e growth of BaTiO3. In a first step, epitaxial waveguide structures of c-ax is oriented BaTiO3 thin films on MgO (001) have been grown by pulsed laser deposition (PLD). The structural properties of the samples have been charac terized by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry/ion channeling (RBS/C) an d X-Ray diffraction (XRD). We found excellent crystalline quality even up t o a thickness of a few microns. Waveguide losses of 2.9 dB cm(-1) have been demonstrated. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.