Temperature-dependent dielectric and electro-optic properties of a ZnO- BaTiO3 -ZnO heterostructure grown by pulsed-laser deposition

Temperature-dependent dielectric and electro-optic properties of a ZnO- BaTiO3 -ZnO heterostructure grown by pulsed-laser deposition on (0001) sapphire are reported. The wurtzite-structure ZnO layers serve as transparent conducting electrodes. Previously observed coupling effects within the wurtzite-perovskite heterostructure by spectroscopic electro-optic ellipsometry birefringence measurements manifest themselves as a "pinning" of the ferroelectric polarization in the BaTiO3 layer by the cladding ZnO layers. Temperature-controlled electro-optic Raman measurements assign the electro-optic birefringence results to a temperature-driven phase transition resulting from the leakage current within the sample. High-temperature small-signal capacitance measurements exploiting the conductive electrode properties of the cladding layers reveal occurrence of the Curie temperature of the BaTiO3 layer at 384 K.