Low-temperature preparation of highly (1 1 1) oriented PZT thin films by a modified sol–gel technique

Abstract

A modified sol–gel technique has been developed for the preparation of PZT thin films on Pt(1 1 1)/Ti/SiO 2/Si(1 0 0) substrates. The technique uses zirconium nitrate to substitute for the conventional Zr-alkoxides, which enhances the stability of the precursor solution and simplifies the sol–gel processing significantly. Using a modified precursor solution and rapid thermal annealing (RTA) process, highly (1 1 1) oriented PbZr 0.5Ti 0.5O 3 (PZT 50/50) thin films are obtained even at a low annealing temperature of 550°C. The low-temperature processing is assisted by a layer-by-layer annealing method. The PZT 50/50 thin film annealed at 550°C showed a well-saturated hysteresis loop at an applied electric field of 200 kV/cm with P r and E c of 11 μC/cm 2 and 45 kV/cm, respectively. The dielectric constant and dielectric loss of the film are 520 and 0.023, respectively.