A piezoelectric member that achieves a high sound speed includes a silicon-containing substrate and a piezoelectric layer. The piezoelectric layer is disposed on the silicon-containing substrate. At least a surface layer of the piezoelectric layer on a side opposite to the silicon-containing substrate is made of B.sub.xAl.sub.1-xN (0<x≦0.2).

Provided is a dielectric thin film including a metal oxide. The metal oxide includes bismuth, sodium, barium, and titanium, at least a part of the metal oxide is a tetragonal crystal having a perovskite structure, and a (100) plane of at least a part of the tetragonal crystal is oriented in a normal direction do of a surface of the dielectric thin film 3.

A method of manufacture and structure for an acoustic resonator device having a hybrid piezoelectric stack with a strained single crystal layer and a thermally-treated polycrystalline layer. The method can include forming a strained single crystal piezoelectric layer overlying the nucleation layer and having a strain condition and piezoelectric layer parameters, wherein the strain condition is modulated by nucleation growth parameters and piezoelectric layer parameters to improve one or more piezoelectric properties of the strained single crystal piezoelectric layer. Further, the method can include forming a polycrystalline piezoelectric layer overlying the strained single crystal piezoelectric layer, and performing a thermal treatment on the polycrystalline piezoelectric layer to form a recrystallized polycrystalline piezoelectric layer. The resulting device with this hybrid piezoelectric stack exhibits improved electromechanical coupling and wide bandwidth performance.

For a piezoelectric device, an optical characteristic and/or a piezoelectric characteristic is improved. A piezoelectric device has a first electrode layer, a second electrode layer, and a piezoelectric layer provided between the first electrode layer and the second electrode layer, wherein the piezoelectric layer is formed of a wurtzite crystal material as a main component, to which one or more elements is/are added, said one or more elements being transparent when turned into an oxide, and wherein a haze value is 3% or less, and transmittance with respect to light having a wavelength of 380 nm is 50% or more.

A piezoelectric thin film is formed through sputtering and consists essentially of scandium aluminum nitride. The carbon atomic content is 2.5 at % or less. When producing the piezoelectric thin film, scandium and aluminum are sputtered simultaneously on a substrate from a scandium aluminum alloy target material having a carbon atomic content of 5 at % or less in an atmosphere where at least nitrogen gas exists. The sputtering may be conducted also by applying an ion beam on an opposing surface of the alloy target material at an oblique angle. Moreover, aluminum and scandium may be also sputtered simultaneously on the substrate from an Sc target material and an Al target material. As a result, a piezoelectric thin film which exhibits excellent piezoelectric properties and a method for the same can be provided.

A ferroelectric device comprising a substrate; a textured layer; a first electrode comprising a thin layer of metallic material having a crystal lattice structure divided into granular regions; a seed layer; the seed layer being epitaxially deposited so as to form a column-like structure on top of the granular regions of the first electrode; at least one ferroelectric material layer exhibiting spontaneous polarization epitaxially deposited on the seed layer; the ferroelectric material layer, the seed layer, and first electrode each having granular regions in which column-like structures produce a high degree of polarization normal to the growth plane and a method of making.

Provided is a piezoelectric film formed by a vapor phase growth method, the piezoelectric film containing:

a perovskite oxide in which a perovskite oxide represented by the following formula P is doped with Si in an amount of from 0.2 mol % to less than 0.5 mol %, wherein a ratio of a peak intensity of a pyrochlore phase to a sum of peak intensities in respective plane orientations of (100), (001), (110), (101) and (111) of a perovskite phase measured by an X-ray diffraction method is 0.25 or less:

A.sub.1+δ[(Zr.sub.xTi.sub.1−a).sub.1−aNb.sub.a]O.sub.y  Formula P

wherein, in formula P, A is an A-site element primarily containing Pb; Zr, Ti, and Nb are B-site elements; x is more than 0 but less than 1; a is 0.1 or more but less than 0.3.

A semiconductor component that includes at least one dielectric layer and at least one first electrode and one second electrode. In addition, at least two defect types different from one another are present in the dielectric layer. These at least two defect types different from one another move along localized defect states, each at an average effective distance, in the direction of one of the two electrodes as a function of an operating voltage that is applied between the first electrode and the second electrode, and an operating temperature that is present. The average effective distance is greater than 3.2 nm.

A method to deposit a coating including a material with highly oriented microstructure, the method including at least the following sequence of process steps: providing a flat substrate into a first vacuum processing chamber; etching one surface of the substrate by physical vapor etching; depositing a first metallic layer on the etched substrate surface by sputtering in a first metal deposition step; annealing the first metallic layer at an annealing temperature at least 50° C. higher than a compound deposition temperature of the subsequent compound deposition step; depositing a first compound layer at the compound deposition temperature on the outer surface of the first metallic layer by reactive sputtering in a first compound deposition step; and depositing a second metallic layer on the outer surface of the first compound layer by sputtering in a second metal deposition step.

Provided is a piezoelectric film that has a perovskite structure preferentially oriented to a (100) plane and that comprises a composite oxide represented by the following compositional formula: Pb.sub.a[(Zr.sub.xTi.sub.1-x).sub.1-yNb.sub.y].sub.bO.sub.3 wherein 0<x<1, and 0.10≤y<0.13, in which in a case where a ratio I.sub.(200)/I.sub.(100) of a diffraction peak intensity I.sub.(200) from a perovskite (200) plane with respect to a diffraction peak intensity I.sub.(100) from a perovskite (100) plane, as measured by an X-ray diffraction method, is r, and a/b is q, 0.28r+0.9≤q≤0.32r+0.95, 1.10≤q≤1.25, and r≤1.00 are satisfied.