High Tolerance of BST Thin Film Based Varactor Under Neutron Irradiation

We report neutron irradiation resistance of the barium strontium titanate (BST) thin-film-based varactor under different neutron fluences. BST thin films were deposited on sapphire substrate by RF magnetron sputtering and gold interdigital capacitor (IDC) electrodes were patterned with the photolithography technique. Capacitance-voltage ( $C$ – $V$ ) and leakage current characteristics were measured at several neutron fluences. A small change in capacitance is observed at different fluences. The changes are attributed to the radiation-induced defect dipoles and other charged defects, which serve as effective domain wall pinning sites. We supplemented this macroscopic $C$ – $V$ behavior of BST varactor with investigation through X-ray diffraction and atomic force microscopy for their structural and morphological changes, respectively. This paper shows that BST varactor can be used in neutron environment due to its high tolerance.