Stress analysis and ferroelectric properties of Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)0.96Nb0.04O3 thin film grown on different thickness of BaPbO3 electrodes

Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)0.96Nb0.04O3 (PZTN) thin films were deposited on BaPbO3 (BPO) electrodes by rf-magnetron sputtering. 34, 68, 135, and 270 nm thick BPOs were adopted in this study. The preferred orientation changes from slightly (100)/(001) to slightly (101)/(110) as the BPO thickness increased. The mean grain sizes obtained by Williamson–Hall plots are 81 nm, 120 nm, 146 nm, and 90 nm, respectively. The same tendency was observed by atomic force microscopy method. In residual stress analysis, tensile stress was observed in every film. The stress magnitude is the maximum in the film with 135 nm thick BPO. Through a simple calculation, we suggest that the tensile stress in our films mainly originates from the phase transformation stresses. We also note that the ferroelectric and dielectrics properties are improved with the raise of tensile stresses. A possible reason is that the tensile stress benefits the tetragonal–monoclinic phase transition in the PZTN films with composition near morphotropic phase boun...