Growth of highly oriented iridium oxide bottom electrode for Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 thin films using titanium oxide seed layer

Due to its low resistivity and excellent thermal stability, IrO2 has attracted attention as an alternative for electrode material in ferroelectric integrated circuit applications. Oriented growth of IrO2 electrode film was investigated with the goal to control the texture of the PZT thin film. IrO2 films were prepared by DC reactive sputtering. PZT film was prepared by RF magnetron sputtering single target deposition method. The whole layer stack was grown onto amorphous thermal oxide of a silicon wafer. The results indicate that IrO2 thin film was preferentially (200) oriented when a TiO2 seeding layer was used. The orientation relationships along the whole PZT(111)/IrO2(200)/TiO2(200)/Ti structure was discussed.