Preparation and Properties of PZT Thin Films Produced by Decomposition of Metal Carboxylate Gels

Abstract

In this work, PZT (Zr/Ti=52/48) thin films have been prepared using aqueous organic gel method. The desired metal cations are chelated in a solution using citric acid and ethylenediaminetertraacetic acid (EDTA) as the chelating agents. The thermal decompostion of the metal carboxylate precursors gels have been studied by TG/DTA and the products derived from calcinations of the gels at different temperatures have been characterized by XRD and SEM. By heat-treatment at 650°C for 2h, PZT thin films with smooth and crack-free surface could be achieved. The thickness of each layer was 50nm. Electric properties measurement indicated that the PZT films demonstrated a ferroelectric hysteresis loop. The remanent polarization(Pr) and coercive field (Ec) were 20.7μC/cm2 and 75.5kV/cm, respectively. The dielectric constant and the dielectric loss at 100 kHz of the films were 930 and 0.045, respectively.