Investigation of the Crystalline Orientations and Substrates Dependence on Mechanical Properties of PZT Thin Films by Nanoindentation

In this paper, we investigated the effects of the substrates and crystalline orientations on the mechanical properties of Pb(Zr 0.52 Ti 0.48 )O 3 thin films. The PZT thin films were deposited by sol-gel method on platinized silicon substrates with different types of layer materials such as silicon nitride and silicon oxide. The crystalline orientations of PZT thin films were controlled by combined parameters of a chelating agent and pyrolysis temperature. A nanoindentation CSM (continuous stiffness measurement) technique was employed to characterize the mechanical properties of those PZT thin films. It was observed that (001/100)-oriented films show a higher Young’s modulus compared to films with mixed orientations of (110) and (111), indicating a clear dependence on film orientation. The influence of substrates on the mechanical properties of PZT thin films was also characterized. Finally, no significant influence of the film thickness was found on the mechanical properties of films thicker than 200 nm.