Formation Mechanisms for Hetero-Phase Ferroelectric Films of Lead Zirconate Titanate

Abstract

An experimental and theoretical study of the formation processes of "impurity" phase inclusions in ferroelectric oxides is carried out via example of polycrystalline lead zirconate-titanate (PZT) films. A feature of these compositions is relatively high volatility of lead oxides, which can lead to deficiency of these components in the composition of the ferroelectric film formed during high-temperature crystallization. To avoid lead losses, some excess is added to the solution in the process of synthesis. Experimental samples of PZT films are obtained using sol-gel method with different contents of lead oxide, the crystallization of the ferroelectric phase of the films is carried out in air at 600 °C. In the films, the inclusions of lead oxide impurity phase are found, and the size distribution of these inclusions are obtained. Model concepts are presented and a system of equations is proposed describing the dispersed inclusions formation kinetics of new phases of different stoichiometric composition at the interfaces in polycrystalline films of multicomponent ferroelectric oxides due to bulk diffusion and grain-boundary segregation. Comparison of the experimental data with the theoretical model gives qualitative agreement. The approach generality makes it possible to extend the model to other systems of multicomponent ferroelectric polycrystalline materials.