Tunable Properties of Ferroelectric Thick Films With MgO Added on (BaSr)TiO3

MgO enhanced $(Ba_{0.6}Sr_{0.4})$ $TiO_3$ thick films have been fabricated by a tape casting and firing method for tunable devices on the microwave frequency band. In order to improve ferroelectric properties, the composite thick films enhanced with MgO on BST have been asymmetrically annealed by a focused halogen beam method. Dielectric constants of composite thick films are changed from 1050 to 1300 at 100 kHz after 60 s and 150 s annealing by the focused halogen beam. Even though no prominent changes were previously observed from the thick films before and after annealing in terms of chemical composition and surface morphology, it is clear that the average particle size of the thick films calculated by Scherrer's formula were increased by annealing. Furthermore, a strong correlation between particle size and dielectric constant of the composite thick films has been observed; dielectric constant increases with increased particle size. This has been attributed to the increased volume of ferroelectric domain due to increased particle sizes. As a result, the tuning range was improved by halogen beam annealing.