Large electro-optic effect in single-crystal Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 (001) measured by spectroscopic ellipsometry

Using spectroscopic ellipsometry electro-optic effect was studied in lead zirconate titanate (PZT) thin films grown epitaxially on Nb-doped SrTiO3(001) substrates by RF magnetron sputtering. A uniaxial multilayer model analysis was applied to extract the linear and quadratic electro-optic coefficients from the shifts in the ordinary and extraordinary refractive indices with electric field applied along the (001) direction. The effective linear and quadratic coefficients were measured as −134.6×10−12 m/V and 8.5×10−18 m2/V2, respectively, at a wavelength of 632.8 nm, while the individual linear electro-optic coefficients r33 and r13 were −157.1 and 22 pm/V, respectively. The existence of the linear electro-optic effect in unpoled PZT films was attributed to the presence of a built-in polarization and simultaneous poling during measurements.