Abstract
The preferential formation of a pyrochlore structure is a knotty problem in the preparation of Pb(Zn1/3Nb2/3)O3 (PZN)-based thin film materials and its presence is significantly detrimental to the dielectric and piezoelectric properties. In this study, 40 mol% of PZN was replaced with Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3 (PMN) for obtaining a perovskite composition around a morphotropic phase boundary (MPB), (1−x)(0.6PZN-0.4PMN)-xPT ((1−x)PZMN-xPT, PT: PbTiO3) where x = 0.23. The thin films with this composition were prepared with a polyethylene glycol (PEG) modi-fied sol-gel method on LaAlO3 substrates. The microstructural evolution of the films on heat treatment was examined with X-ray diffraction. With the aid of PEG, the formation of the pyrochlore phase was suppressed and the perovskite phase formed directly from the amorphous gel film. The multilayer films with a thickness around 0.25 μm showed a single perovskite phase without any detectable pyrochlore structure. Microscopic images showed uniform grain size of a few tens of nanometers. The role of the polymer dramatically promoting the perovskite phase was investigated with the aid of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and thermal analysis. The dielectric constant of the obtained film was 4160 at 1 kHz. The film demonstrated typical ferroelectric hysteresis loops and exhibited excellent piezoelectric performance.
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