Epitaxial growth of Pb(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O3 on Si and its nanoscale piezoelectric properties

We have demonstrated a route to epitaxial Pb(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O3 on (001) Si that exhibits a uniform piezoelectric response down to nanoscale levels through the utilization of an insulating, single-crystalline SrTiO3 transition layer. These structures, which were grown by a combination of molecular-beam epitaxy and off-axis magnetron sputtering, have a surface roughness of <5 A, with piezoelectric microscopy measurements revealing a piezoelectric coefficient of ∼50 pm/V that is switchable down to sub-100-nm dimensions.