Abstract
The crystallinity, chemical bonding, and electrical properties of BaPbO 3 (BPO) thin films prepared by rf-magnetron sputtering on SiO 2 /Si substrates were investigated. The working pressure and the Ar/O 2 ratio during sputtering are two of the most important factors that influence the characteristics of the prepared BPO films. Both increasing working pressure and increasing Ar/O 2 ratio enhanced the crystallization of the perovskite BPO phase and yielded films with low resistivity. Sputtering in an environment with a working pressure of 80mTorr and Ar/O 2 = 90/10 at 350°C gave deposited BPO films with a low resistivity of 0.9 × 10 -3 Ωcm, and a high carrier concentration of 8.3 × 10 20 electrons/cm 3 , which values were almost equal to those of the bulk BaPbO 3 , X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) revealed that Pb 4+ ions were formed in the BPO films as the working pressure and the Ar/O 2 ratio were increased, enhancing the crystallization of the perovskite BPO phase to yield films of the lower resistivity.