Microstructure of Compositionally Graded PZT films Grown by Pulsed Laser Deposition

Abstract

Ferroelectric films with a composition gradient have attracted much attention because of their large polarization offset present in the hysteresis loops. Lead Zirconate Titanate (PZT) films were deposited on Pt/TiO2/SiO2/Si substrates by Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) technique, using a Nd:YAG laser (Surelite) with a source pulse wavelength of 1064 nm and duration of 5-7 ns delivering an energy of 320 mJ per pulse and a laser fluence energy about 20 J/cm2. The film growth is performed in O2 atmosphere (0,40 mbar) while the substrate is heated at 600°C by a quartz lamp. Starting from ceramic targets based on PZT compositions and containing 5% mol. of excess of PbO to compensate the lead evaporation during heat treatment, three films with different compositions Zr/Ti 55/45, 65/35 and 92/8, and two types of complex structures were produced. These complex structures are in the case of the up-graded structure (UpG), with PZT (92/8) at the bottom, PZT (65/35) on middle and PZT (55/45) on the top, and for down-graded (DoG) one, that order is reversed.