Studies of ferroelectric heterostructure thin films and interfaces, via insitu analytical techniques

The science and technology of ferroelectric thin films has experienced an e xplosive development during the last ten years. Low-density non-volatile fe rroelectric random access memories (NVFRAMs) are now incorporated in commer cial products such as "smart cards", while high permittivity capacitors are incorporated in cellular phones. However, substantial work is still needed to develop materials integration strategies for high-density memories. We have demonstrated that the implementation of complementary in situ characte rization techniques is critical to understand film growth and interface pro cesses, which play critical roles in film microstructures and properties. We are using uniquely integrated time of flight ion scattering and recoil s pectroscopy (TOF-ISARS) and spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) techniques to p erform in situ, real-time studies of film growth processes in the high back ground gas pressure required to growth ferroelectric thin films. TOF-ISARS provides information on surface processes, while SE permits the investigati on of buried interfaces as they are being formed. Recent studies on SrBi2Ta 2O9 (SBT) and BaxSr1-xTiO3 (BST) film growth and interface processes are di scussed.