Effect of Thickness and Annealing Temperature on the Properties of PZT Films at Morphotropic Phase Boundary Composition Prepared by Sol-Gel Spin-On Technique

Abstract

Pb (ZrxTi1-x)O3 films at morphotropic phase boundary composition (x=0.52) were deposited on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si substrates by sol-gel spin on technique. Thickness of the films were varied up to 1μm by step-by-step crystallization process and annealed at 500, 600 and 700 °C. Films annealed at 500 °C had poor degree of crystallization for all the thicknesses while 600 and 700 °C annealed films were found to be well crystallized with a (111) preferential orientation. Also an enhanced degree of preferential orientation was observed on the films annealed at 600 °C compared to films annealed at 700 °C. Room temperature dielectric measurements showed higher dielectric constant values for the films annealed at 600 °C compared to films annealed at 700 °C. The remnant polarization (Pr) and coercive field (Ec) at an applied field of 160 kV/cm depicted that 600 °C annealed films had a higher Pr and lower Ec values compared with the 700 °C annealed films attributed to the higher degree of preferential orientation.