Low-Temperature Crystallization of Pb(Zr 0.4 ,Ti 0.6 )O 3 Thin Films by Chemical Solution Deposition

We studied the crystallization of sol-gel derived Pb(Zr0.4Ti0.6)O3 [PZT(40/60)] thin films at 400 down to 390°C on Pt/SiO2/Si substrates by combination of diol-based solutions and modified film preparation processes. It was found that PZT films could be crystallized at 390°C and that PZT films crystallized at 400°C had microstructures with perovskite-single-phase columnar grains and good ferroelectric characteristics such as switched polarization (2 Pr) of 20 μC/cm2 and relative permittivity (er) of 740. Next, we evaluated annealing temperature dependence of PZT(40/60) thin films crystallized at 390 to 435°C. The results indicated that (111)-orientation of perovskite phases became weaker, (100)-orientation of those became stronger, and the perovskite grain size increased with decreasing in annealing temperature.