Structural and electrical properties of Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 films grown by molecular beam epitaxy

Abstract

Single-crystal, single-phase Pb(ZrxTi1−x)O3 films (x=0–0.4) were grown on (001) SrTiO3 and SrTiO3:Nb substrates by molecular beam epitaxy. Layer-by-layer growth of the Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 films was achieved by using PbTiO3 buffer layers between the SrTiO3 substrates and the Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 films. The layers with low Zr content showed high crystallinity with full width at half maximum of ω-rocking curves as low as 4arcmin, whereas increase in Zr concentration led to pronounced angular broadening. The PbZr0.07Ti0.93O3 films exhibited remanent polarization as high as 83μC∕cm2, but local areas suffered from nonuniform leakage current.