Growth and ferroelectric properties of sol–gel derived Bi(Mg1/2Zr1/2)O3–PbTiO3 thin films

Abstract

The electrical properties included temperature-dependent polarization of (1−x)Bi(Mg1/2Zr1/2)O3–xPbTiO3 (BMZ–xPT) new ferroelectric films were investigated. The films with 220nm thickness grown on Pt(111)/Ti/SiO2/Si substrates via sol–gel method were well crystallized with a phase-pure perovskite structure and homogeneous microstructure. Saturated polarization hysteresis loops are observed for all BMZ–xPT compounds, and BMZ–0.85PT films with high (100) orientation show a small leakage and remanent polarization of 36.1μCcm−2, which is comparable to the (100)-oriented BiScO3–PbTiO3 thin films. The present films have high dielectric constants about 544-833. Furthermore, the polarization with elevated temperature slightly decreases, exhibiting stable ferroelectric properties and potentials for memory applications above room temperature such as non-volatile ferroelectric random access memories.