Pulsed Lased Deposition of Single-Crystalline (001) Oriented Pb(Zr0.5T0.5)O3 Thin Film on PrScO3 Substrate

Abstract

High quality thin films are important for domain engineering applications such as on-volatile memory applications. Single crystalline (001) oriented Pb (Zr_0.5T_0.5)O₃ thin films have been grown by pulsed laser deposition on PrScO₃ with strontium ruthenate (SRO) electrodes. Thin films were prepared from PZT ceramic targets with 15% excess PbO to compensate for lead loss at high deposition temperature. Layer by layer/step flow growth mode observed on AFM images has been realised by using a single terminated PrScO₃ substrate as well as optimized deposition parameters. XRD measurements have confirmed the highly (001) oriented tetragonal symmetry. Furthermore, analysis conducted using piezoresponse force microscopy has shown that the thin films are monodomain with spontaneous ferroelectric polarization preferentially pointing upwards, i.e., away from the substrate. The absence of ferroelastic domains and the observed single ferroelectric domain structure are the results of both relatively small compressive misfit strain as well as favourable electrical boundary conditions.

Keywords:    PZT, Pulsed Laser Deposition, Epitaxy, Thin film.