In situ growth of highly oriented Pb(Zr0.5Ti0.5)O3 thin films by low-temperature metal–organic chemical vapor deposition

Abstract

Highly oriented, polycrystalline Pb(Zr0.5Ti0.5)O3 (PZT) thin films were successfully grown on RuO2/SiO2/(001)Si using metal–organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) at 525 °C. The orientation of the PZT film was controlled by using MOCVD-deposited highly textured RuO2 bottom electrodes. A (001)-oriented PZT film was observed for growth on (101)-textured RuO2. In contrast, for (110) RuO2, the growth of (001) PZT was greatly suppressed while the growth of both (110) and (111) were enhanced, resulting in a poorly (001)-textured polycrystalline film. The as-grown PZT films exhibited a dense columnar microstructure with an average grain size of 150–250 nm. Both PZT films showed excellent ferroelectric properties without any postgrowth annealing. The (001) highly oriented PZT films showed significantly higher values of remnant polarization (Pr=49.7 μC/cm2) and saturation polarization (Ps=82.5 μC/cm2). In comparison, for the PZT films grown on (110) RuO2, Pr and Ps were 21.5 and 35.4 μC/cm2, respectively.