Epitaxial-like growth of solution-processed PbZr0.4Ti0.6O3 thin film on single-crystal Nb-doped SrTiO3 substrate

Abstract

PbZr0.4Ti0.6O3 (PZT) thin films have been conventionally fabricated on traditional silicon substrates with a platinum bottom electrode; however, as a consequence of unit cell mismatch, the films are difficult to form as an epitaxial-like growth. Hence, PZT films deposited on single-crystal niobium doped SrTiO3(111) substrates (Nb:STO) are promising to solve this issue thanks to the similar perovskite structure between PZT and STO. Essentially, Nb:STO material is a conductor, playing a part in both bottom electrode and epitaxial substrate. In this work, 200-nm-thick PZT films were successfully fabricated on Nb:STO substrates by a solution process. One obtained that PZT(111) peak started to appear on the Nb:STO substrate at a low annealing temperature of 450oC. Also, scanning electron microscopy observation shows smooth and homogeneous surface of PZT films on Nb:STO substrate with no grain boundary, which evidences for epitaxial-like growth of PZT thin films. Remnant polarization of 6 µC/cm2 and leakage current of 8×10-8 A were obtained at applied voltage of 5 V.