Excimer UV-assisted rapid thermal annealing of PbLa(Zr,Ti)O3 thin films by a sol-gel deposition method

Abstract

Excimer UV-assisted rapid thermal annealing (UV-RTA) process has been employed to fabricate sol-gel derived ferroelectric Pb0.97La0.03(Zr0.53Ti0.47)O3 (PLZT) thin films on Pt∕Ti∕SiO2∕Si substrates. X-ray diffraction analysis showed that the single phase PLZT thin film can be achieved at a relatively low processing temperature of 580°C. The films appeared to have improved dielectric properties with dielectric constant (ε) and loss (tanδ) values of 3300 and 0.03 at 1kHz, respectively. Comparatively good remnant polarization (Pr) value of 36μCcm−2 and coercive field (Ec) value of 60kVcm−1 along with a good fatigue resistance up to 1010 switching cycles have been observed. This method of fabrication of the Pb-based material with the aid of UV-RTA at a comparatively lower temperature opens the door for their better employability in the Si integrated circuit technology.