For the further scaling and lower voltage applications of nonvolatile ferroelectric memory, the effect of Kr/O2 sputtering for SrBi2Ta2O9 (SBT) thin film formation was investigated utilizing a SrBi2Ta2O9 target. The 80-nm-thick SBT films were deposited by radio-frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si(100). Compared with Ar/O2 sputtering, the ferroelectric properties such as larger remnant polarization (Pr) of 3.2 μC/cm2 were observed with decrease of leakage current in case of Kr/O2 sputtering. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns indicated that improvement of the crystallinity with suppressing pyrochlore phases and enhancing ferroelectric phases was realized by Kr/O2 sputtering.

Post annealing treatment for CoCrPt magnetic thin films were tried in different thermal conditions, by changing the time of annealing procedure. Coercivity (Hc) improvement was achieved in annealed sample compared with those as deposited, in which as high as 5.2 kOe has been attained. To clarify the mechanism of annealing treatment on the magnetic properties, X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectrums of those samples and their magnetic properties were carefully studied. Co and Cr lattice parameters were separately calculated from different crystal lattice plane. It was found that a axis lattice spacing of Co hexagonal structure increases monotonically with increased annealing time. Variation of Co hcp peaks significance may due to Cr or Pt redistribution in the crystal grains and its boundaries. Combined with the grain size analysis of Co-rich area by X-ray diffraction peak broaden width, which was not very consistent with the result obtained from other's TEM and AFM studies, Cr diffusion was suggested to be the governing factor at short annealing time region. Co-rich grain growth should also be applied to explain the variation of magnetic properties in longer post annealing.

To improve the emission properties of blue-emitting phosphor layer, SrS:Ce, we evaluated CeN instead of conventional CeCl3 as a starting material. We evaluated the composition and the crystallinity of the thin films using RBS and XRD methods. We also evaluated luminescent properties of EL devices using SrS:Ce phosphor layer. From the results of RBS and XRD measurements, we found that the concentration of the oxygen impurity in SrS:Ce thin films was decreased and the crystallinity of SrS:Ce thin films was improved when CeN is used. These results mean that the degradation of SrS:Ce thin films can be prevented by the use CeN. The evaluation of luminescent properties, shows that the luminance of SrS:Ce EL device is increased by the use of CeN.