Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 February 2011
The ability to study the surface texture of a sol-gel film of lead titanateas it is heated in-situ in an environmental scanningelectron microscope is demonstrated. Measurements of the shrinkage of thefilm at cracks and around delaminations of several microns have been Made.Grain sizes of the final crystalline microstructure were determined to be ∼0.2 μm. The formation of bumps in the film 1–5 μm in size was observed. Thepresence of these features may correlate with the onset ofcrystallization.