Remarkably enhanced energy storage properties of lead-free Ba0.53Sr0.47TiO3 thin films capacitors by optimizing bottom electrode thickness

The lead-free Ba0.53Sr0.47TiO3 (BST) thin films buffered with La0.67Sr0.33MnO3 (LSMO) bottom electrode of different thicknesses were fabricated by pulsed laser deposition method on a (001) SrTiO3 substrate. It was found that the roughness of electrode decreases and substrate stress relaxes gradually with the increase of LSMO thickness, which is beneficial for weakening local high electric field and achieving higher Eb. Therefore, the recoverable energy density (Wrec) of BST films can be greatly improved up to 67.3 %, that is, from 30.6 J/cm3 for the LSMO thickness of 30 nm up to 51.2 J/cm3 for the LSMO thickness of 140 nm after optimizing the LSMO thickness. Furthermore, the thin film capacitor with a 140 nm LSMO bottom electrode shows an outstanding thermal stability from 20 °C to 160 °C and superior fatigue resistance after 108 electrical cycles with only a slightly decrease of Wrec below 1.6 % and 3.7 %, respectively. Our work demonstrates that optimizing bottom electrodes thickness is a promising way for enhancing energy storage properties of thin-film capacitors.