UV-assisted low-temperature sol–gel deposition of Pb(Zr0.4Ti0.6)O3 film and its photoelectrical properties

Abstract

Low temperature fabrication of Pb(Zr0.4Ti0.6)O3 (PZT) films is vital for development of photoelectronic devices based on ferroelectric film on Si substrate. In this work, PZT films were fabricated on Si substrate with LaNiO3 as electrode through ultraviolet assisted low-temperature sol-gel method. PZT gel films were irradiated at 150 °C by ultraviolet light with wavelength of 185 and 254 nm. After annealing at a low temperature of 450–480 °C, crystallized PZT films were obtained on Si substrate. Results indicated that ultraviolet irradiation increased the film density, improved the ferroelectric and photovoltaic properties of the PZT films. The obtained PZT film annealed at 480 °C showed a remanent polarization of 21 μC/cm2 and leakage current of 9.71 × 10−8 A/cm2 at 100 kV/cm. Moreover, good retention and high stability of photocurrent were obtained for a 480 °C-annealed PZT film. The PZT precursor films were irradiated by UV light, which can cleaves the organic group at low temperature and forms active metal-oxygen-metal bonds, furthermore, it can get rid of residual carbon, improve the density of films, consequently, well crystalline PZT films can be obtained at low temperature.