Study on the microstructure and electrical properties of Pb(Zr _0.53 Ti_0.47)O₃ thin-films

Abstract. In the present study a complete analysis of the morphological and electrical properties of PZT layers with composition 53Zr-47Ti is presented. Three different samples composed of 3, 6, and 9 PZT layers were analyzed on a substrate consisting of ZrO2-SiO2-Si structures. The PZT and ZrO2 layers were deposited via Sol-Gel, whereas the SiO2 layer, on every sample, was deposited via PECVD. SEM results showed morphology of very small granules on the 3 layered thin-film samples (12 nm), on the 6 layered thin-film samples a mixture of small and large size (100-300 nm) granule formation was observed, with the 9 layered thin-film samples exhibiting very large granule sizes (bigger than 300 nm). XRD results showed that increasing the number of deposited layers caused an incremental increase on the detected peak intensities, aided in the promotion of the perovskite phase, and diminished the presence of the pyrochlore phase. It was also observed, during electrical measurements, that increasing the number deposited layers directly increased the overall capacitance of the thin-film structure. This effect was attributed primarily to the large amount of perovskite and large size of grains presented on thick samples.