Effect of Pb Content on Electric Properties of Sol-Gel Derived Lead Zirconate Titanate Thin Films Prepared by Three-Step Heat-Treatment Process

Lead zirconate titanate (PZT) thin films were fabricated by a three-step heat-treatment process which involves the addition of -10, 0 and 10 mol% excess Pb to the starting solution and spin coating onto Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si substrates. Crystalline phases as well as preferred orientations in PZT films were investigated by X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD). The microstructure and composition of the films were studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and electron probe microanalysis (EPMA), respectively. The well-crystallized perovskite phase and the (100) preferred orientation were obtained by adding 10% excess Pb to the starting solution. It was found that PZT films to which of 10% excess Pb was added had better electric properties. The remanent polarization and the coercive field of this film were 34.8 µC/cm2 and 41.7 kV/cm, while the dielectric constant and loss values measured at 1 kHz were approximately 1600 and 0.04, respectively. Dielectric and ferroelectric properties were correlated to the microstructure of the films.