Tetragonal distortion of c domains in fatigued Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 thin films determined by x-ray diffraction measurements with highly brilliant synchrotron radiation

Abstract

We performed x-ray diffraction measurements by using highly brilliant synchrotron radiation on only a small region of 250-nm-thick Pb(Zr0.33Ti0.67)O3 polycrystalline films with gold top electrodes after applying various numbers of switching cycles of the electric field. The films were deposited on Pt/SiO2/Si substrates by low-temperature metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. The plane spacing and integrated intensity of 004 and 400 diffraction patterns were plotted against the number of switching cycles. We found a good correlation between the increase in 004-plane spacing and the decrease in remanent polarization. This correlation indicates that tetragonal distortion of c domains is closely related to the fatigue phenomenon.