Characteristics of sol-gel derived PZT thin films with lead oxide cover layers and lead titanate interlayers

The sol-gel derived PbZr0.53Ti0.47O3 (PZT) films were fabricated on the bare Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si substrates or the same substrates coated by the PbTiO3 (PT) interlayers. The post-deposition annealing temperature and time were optimized when the PbO cover layers and PbO vapour-containing atmosphere were compared with each other and adopted as the method to diminish the lead-loss problem during the high-temperature post-deposition annealing. The X-ray diffraction patterns, microstructures, and electrical properties such as relative permittivity, εr, remanent polarization, Pr, and coercive electrical field, Ec, were investigated in relation to the annealing conditions. The PZT films deposited on the bare Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si substrates under the PbO vapour-containing atmosphere showed better electrical properties. This indicates that the PbO vapour-containing atmosphere may be the better method of lead-loss-prevention to process the lead-containing films rather than the PbO cover layer method. The electrical characteristics of the PZT films, εr=1150, a dissipation factor of 0.039, Pr=26 μC cm−2, and Ec=40.5 kV cm−1 were measured at 1 kHz. When PZT films were deposited on substrates coated by the PT layers, PZT-PT films with single perovskite phase were derived by post-deposition annealing at 500 °C for 1 h. However, the relative electrical properties are very poor, i.e. Er=160, Pr=2.0 μC cm−2 and Ec=75 kVcm−1. The optimum combination for preparing PZT-PT films is a 40 nm PbTiO3 interlayer and annealing conditions of 6 h at 550 °C in a PbO vapour-containing atmosphere; the derived films exhibit electrical properties of Er=885, Pr=21.5 μC cm−2 and Ec=64 kV cm−1. The combination of inserting a PT interlayer and annealing in a PbO vapour-containing atmosphere can prevent the formation of electrical short paths. In this case, nearly pin-hole-free PZT films can be grown on the PT (interlayer) /Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si substrates. It is believed that it is possible to prepare the PZT films with nano-scale uniformity, reproducible quality, which may be worth considering for commercial applications.

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