Physical and Electro-Optical Properties of Ion Beam Sputtered Thin Film PLZT Ceramic

Abstract

ABSTRACTHigh quality PLZT thin films have been deposited using ion beam sputtering. The deposited material has perovskite crystal structure tetragonal in phase with the c-axis predominantly normal to the surface. Material deposited at temperatures below 450°C has pyrochlore structure while that deposited above 650°C displays polycrystalline characteristics. The deposition rate was approximately 0.2–0.5 Å/sec yielding film thicknesses of ∼4500 Å. The surface morphology of the deposited films is of high quality with a RMS roughness 60% that of magnetron sputtered films.