Effects of rapid thermal annealing parameters on crystal ion slicing-fabricated LiTaO3 thin film

Crystal ion slicing (CIS) technology has been widely applied to fabricate single-crystalline quality thin film, although the ion implantation process can cause lattice strain and electric properties changes in the fabricated film. In this paper, CIS-fabricated Z-cut LiTaO3 (LT) thin films were annealed under different temperatures and times by rapid thermal annealing (RTA). The effects of annealing parameters on microstructure and dielectric properties of LT films were studied. It is found that the lattice strain can be partially released by RTA according to the XRD diffraction peak shift and this lattice release also has an influence on the permittivity and dielectric loss. Additionally, anomalous recrystallization behavior has been observed in the samples annealed at higher temperature or longer time according to the abnormal grain growth revealed by AFM. Besides, unusual permittivity and dielectric loss increase in sample annealed at 600℃ was measured and it may result from the abnormal grain growth. In summary, it is indicated by the results that RTA is an effective way to release lattice strain and it can impact electric properties of CIS-fabricated LT thin film.