Abstract
We report the first instance of deposition of preferentially oriented, nanocrystalline, and nanocolumnar strontium-doped lead zirconate titanate (PSZT) ferroelectric thin films directly on thermal silicon dioxide. No intermediate seed or activation layers were used between PSZT and silicon dioxide. The deposited thin films have been characterised using a combination of diffraction and microscopy techniques.
Highlights
There is potential for harnessing the nonlinear properties of ferroelectric thin films for applications in photonics and integration with left-handed materials, as has been demonstrated for bulk ferroelectric crystals [1, 2]
The X-ray diffractogram of PSZT thin films deposited at room temperature and subjected to post-deposition annealing is shown in Fig. 1a, and consists of peaks at expected 2h positions [12]
The temperature at which these thin films were deposited was chosen to encourage thermally driven grain growth and the diffractogram (Fig. 1b) confirms that this resulted in uniform crystal growth, manifested as strong and sharp peaks in the diffractogram
Summary
There is potential for harnessing the nonlinear properties of ferroelectric thin films for applications in photonics and integration with left-handed materials (metamaterials), as has been demonstrated for bulk ferroelectric crystals [1, 2]. One of the most suitable dielectric layers for the deposition of ferroelectrics is silicon dioxide (SiO2), considering its thermal stability and suitability for optical applications. While these result in c-axis oriented PZT films, the use of seed layers demands additional deposition steps and access to materials.
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