EFFECT OF PRE-HEATING TEMPERATURE ON THE CHARACTERISTICS OF PZT THIN FILMS GROWN BY USING A TRIOL SOL–GEL ROUTE

Abstract

Lead zirconate titanate (PZT) films with compositions near the morphotropic phase boundary were fabricated on Pt (111)/ Ti / SiO 2/ Si (100) using the triol sol–gel method. The effect of the pre-heating temperature on the phase transformations, microstructures, electrical properties, and ferroelectric properties of the PZT thin films was investigated. Randomly oriented PZT thin films pre-heated at 400°C for 10 min and annealed at 600°C for 30 min showed well-defined ferroelectric hysteresis loops with a remnant polarization of 26.57 μC/cm2 and a coercive field of 115.42 kV/cm. The dielectric constant and dielectric loss of the PZT films were 621 and 0.0395, respectively. The microstructures of the thin films are dense, crack-free, and homogeneous with fine grains about 15–20 nm in size.