Pulsed laser deposition and characterization of PZT thin films

Pb(Zr0.53Ti0.47)O3 (PZT) thin films were deposited on TiN coated Si substrates. PZT and TiN layers were grown by two subsequent laser ablation processes in oxygen and, respectively, nitrogen reactive atmosphere. Both deposition processes were conducted at quite low substrate temperature: 350°C for TiN and 375°C for PZT in the same experimental setup (Nd-YAG laser, λ=1.06 μm, energy/pulse 0.3 J, tFWHM=10 ns). The TiN electrode and PZT films were crystalline as revealed by XRD. The orientation of the PZT films was mainly (111) with about 30% component of (002) crystallographic phase. The high frequency optical vibrational modes of the ferroelectric PZT structure have been obtained from FTIR measurements. A mapping of the d33 piezoelectric constant was obtained. Polarization hysteresis cycles of the samples were measured and high values of the remanent polarization and coercive electric field were obtained for all the samples.