Abstract
Lead zirconate titanate (PZT) films of composition close to the morphotropic phase boundary were deposited onto standard Si/SiO2/Ti/Pt substrates using a modified sol-gel process. The preparation conditions were optimized to obtain high-quality films at sufficiently low temperature (Ta = 500 °C). The dielectric, ferroelectric, and piezoelectric properties of the films were then measured as a function of the annealing temperature and the number of distillations to evaluate their suitability for micromechanical applications. The maximum values of the longitudinal charge and voltage piezoelectric coefficients were d33 ∼ 65 pm/V and g33 ∼ 4 × 10−3 Vm/N, respectively. The results indicate that the piezoelectric properties improved and became saturated with increasing number of distillations and are almost independent on Ta. Only moderate decrease of the piezoelectric response with frequency suggests that the investigated PZT films can be used in high-frequency piezoelectric applications. The results are discussed in terms of the microstructure and interface effects on the piezoelectric deformation in ferroelectric thin films.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
O. Auciello, J.F. Scott, and R. Ramesh: The physics of the ferroelectric memories. Phys. Today 51, 22 (1998).
R.E. Jones and S.B. Desu: Process integration for nonvolatile ferroelectric: Memory fabrication. MRS Bull. 21, 55 (1996).
C.A. Paz de Araujo, J.D. Cuchiaro, L.D. McMillan, M.C. Scott, and J.F. Scott: Fatigue-free ferroelectric capacitors with platinumelectrodes. Nature 374, 627 (1995).
M. Boucinha, V. Chu, and J.P. Conde: Thin film micromachined structures for large-area applications. J. Non-Cryst. Solids 266, 1340 (2000).
B.A. Tuttle and R.W. Schwartz: Solution deposition of ferroelectric thin films. MRS Bull. 21, 49 (1996).
K. Maki, N. Soyama, K. Nagamine, S. Mori, and K. Ogi: Low temperature crystallization of sol-gel derived Pb(Zr0.4Ti0.6)O3 thin films. Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 40, 5533 (2001).
A. Wu, P.M. Vilarinho, I.M. Reaney, I.M. Salvado, and J.L. Baptista: Kinetic aspects of the formation of seeded lead zirconate titanate thin films. Integr. Ferroelectr. 30, 261 (2000).
T.L. Ren, L.T. Zhang, L.T. Liu, and Z.J. Li: Silicon based Pb-TiO3/Pb(Zr,Ti)O3/PbTiO3 sandwich structure. Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., 40, 2363 (2001).
K. Maki, B.T. Liu, H. Vu, V. Nagarajan, R. Ramesh, Y. Fujimori, T. Nakamura, and H. Takasu: Controlling crystallization of Pb(Zr, Ti)O3 thin films on IrO2 electrodes at low temperature through interface engineering. Appl. Phys. Lett. 82, 1263 (2003).
I.D. Kim and H.G. Kim: Characterization of highly preferred Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 thin films on La0.5Sr0.5CoO3 and LaNi0.6Co0.4O3 electrodes prepared at low temperature. Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 40, 2357 (2001).
H. Suzuki, T. Koizumi, Y. Kondo, and S. Kaneko: Lowtemperature processing of Pb(Zr0.53Ti0.47)O3 thin film from stable precursor sol. J. Europ. Ceram. Soc. 19, 1397 (1999).
G. Asano, H. Morioka, and H. Funakubo: Fatigue-free RuO2/Pb(Zr,Ti)O3/RuO2 capacitor prepared by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition at 395°C. Appl. Phys. Lett. 83, 5506 (2003).
J. Pérez, P.M. Vilarinho, and A.L. Kholkin: High-quality PbZr0.52Ti0.48O3 films prepared by modified sol-gel route at low temperature. Thin Solid Films 449, 20 (2004).
K. Budd, S. Dey, and D. Payne: Sol-gel processing of PbTiO3, PbZrO3, PZT, and PLZT thin films. Br. Ceram. Proc. 36, 107 (1985).
W.Y. Pan and L.E. Cross: A sensitive double beam laser interferometer for studying high-frequency piezoelectric and electrostrictive strains. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 60, 2701 (1989).
A.L. Kholkin, Ch. Wütchrich, D.V. Taylor, and N. Setter: Interferometric measurements of electric field-induced displacements in piezoelectric thin films. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 67, 1935 (1996).
P. Gerber, A. Roelofs, O. Lohse, C. Kügeler, S. Tiedke, U. Böttger, and R. Waser: Short-time piezoelectric measurements in ferroelectric thin films using a double-beam laser interferometer. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 74, 2613 (2003).
B.A. Tuttle, T.J. Garino, J.A. Voight, T.J. Headley, D. Dimos, and M.O. Eatough: In Science and Technology of Electroceramic Thin Films, edited by O. Auciello and R. Waser, (Kluwer, Netherlands), p. 117.
F. Xu, S. Trolier-McKinstry, W. Ren, B. Xu, Z.L. Xie, and K.J. Hemker: Domain wall motion and its contribution to the dielectric and piezoelectric properties of lead zirconate titanate films. J. Appl. Phys. 89, 1336 (2001).
P.V. Burmistrova, A.S. Sigov, A.L. Vasiliev, K.A. Vorotilov, and O.M. Zhigalina: Effect of lead content on the microstructure and electrical properties of sol-gel PZT thin films. Ferroelectrics 271, 1641 (2002).
A.L. Kholkin, E.K. Akdogan, A. Safari, P-F. Chauvy, and N. Setter: Characterization of the effective electrostriction coefficients in ferroelectric thin films. J. Appl. Phys. 89, 8066 (2001).
A.L. Kholkin, A.K. Tagantsev, E.L. Colla, D.V. Taylor, and N. Setter: Piezoelectric and dielectric aging in Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 thin films and bulk ceramics. Integr. Ferroelectr. 15, 317 (1997).
R. Bruchhaus, D. Pitzer, R. Primig, W. Wersing, and Y. Xu: Deposition of self-polarized PZT films by planar multi-target sputtering. Integr. Ferroelectr. 14, 141 (1997).
A.L. Kholkin, K.G. Brooks, D.V. Taylor, S. Hiboux, and N. Setter: Self-polarization effect in Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 thin films. Integr. Ferroelectr. 22, 1045 (1998).
T. Itoh and T. Saga: Self-excited force-sensing microcantilevers with piezoelectric thin films for dynamic scanning force microscopy. Sens. Actuators A 54, 477 (1996).
A.L. Kholkin, E.L. Colla, A.K. Tagantsev, and N. Setter: Fatigue of piezoelectric properties in Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 films. Appl. Phys. Lett. 68, 2577 (1996).
A.L. Kholkin, A.K. Tagantsev, E.L. Colla, D.V. Taylor, and N. Setter: Piezoelectric and dielectric aging in Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 thin films and bulk ceramics. Integr. Ferroelectr. 15, 317 (1997).
A. Kholkin, E. Colla, K. Brooks, P. Muralt, M. Kohli, T. Maeder, D. Taylor, and N. Setter: Interferometric study of piezoelectric degradation in ferroelectric thin films. Microelectron. Eng. 29, 261 (1995).
A.L. Kholkin, D.V. Taylor, and N. Setter: Poling effect on the piezoelectric properties of lead zirconate titanate thin films, in Proc. IEEE Int. Symp. Appl. Ferroelectrics (1998), p. 69.
J.F. Shepard, F. Chu, I. Kanno, and S. Trolier-McKinstry: Characterization and aging response of the d31 piezoelectric coefficient of lead zirconate titanate thin films. J. Appl. Phys. 85, 6711 (1999).
K. Lefki and G.J.M. Dormans: Measurement of piezoelectric coefficients of ferroelectric thin films. J. Appl. Phys. 76, 1764 (1994).
U. Selvaraj, K. Brooks, A.V. Prasadarao, S. Komarnemi, R. Roy, and L.E. Cross: Sol-gel fabrication of Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3 thinfilms using lead acetylacetonate as the lead source. J. Am. Ceram. Soc. 76, 1441 (1993).
J.O. Olowalafe, R.E. Jones, A.C. Campbell, R.I. Hedge, C.J. Mogab, and R.B. Gregory: Effects of anneal ambients and Pt thickness on Pt/Ti and Pt/Ti/TiN interfacial reactions. J. Appl. Phys. 73, 1764 (1993).
C.K. Kwok and S.B. Desu: Formation kinetics of PbZrxTi1−xO3 thin-films. J. Mater. Res. 9, 1728 (1994).
J.G.E. Gardeniers, Z.M. Rittersma, and G.J. Burger: Preferred orientation and piezoelectricity in sputtered ZnO films. J. Appl. Phys. 83, 7844 (1998).
J-F. Li, D. Viehland, C.D.E. Lakeman, and D.A. Payne: Frequencydependent electromechanical properties for sol-gel deposited ferroelectric lead-zirconate-titanate thin-layers-thickness and processing effects. J. Mater. Res. 10, 1435 (1995).
D. Damjanovic: Stress and frequency dependence of the direct piezoelectric effect in ferroelectric ceramics. J. Appl. Phys. 82, 1788 (1997).
T. Yamagouchi and K. Hamano: Piezoelectric relaxation in ferroelectric AGNA(NO2)2. J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 50, 3956 (1981).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Pérez, J., Vilarinho, P.M., Kholkin, A.L. et al. Effect of processing conditions on the piezoelectric properties of sol-gel derived Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 films for micromechanical applications. Journal of Materials Research 20, 1428–1435 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1557/JMR.2005.0203
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/JMR.2005.0203