Preparation and characterization of sol-gel derived epitaxial and oriented Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3 thin films

Epitaxial and oriented Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3 (PZT) thin films were prepared from nonhydrolyzed polymeric precursors. PZT thin films with a single (001) orientation were prepared on SrTiO3 (100) and MgO (100) substrates by solid-phase epitaxial growth. Crystallization of sol-gel PZT with a (111) preferred orientation was also observed on sapphire (0001) substrates. The guided wave modes were excited by a prism coupling method for PZT thin films crystallized on MgO (100) at 700° C, and the verified refractive index was as high as 2.561. Dielectric constant and remnant polarization of epitaxial PZT thin films, crystallized on conductive Nb-SrTiO3 (100) substrates at 650° C, were 448 at 10 kHz and 15 µ C/cm2, respectively.