The effect of thickness on the dielectric properties of highly (111) oriented Pb(Zr0.53Ti0.47)O3 thin films prepared by a simple sol-gel route

Lead zirconate titanate Pb(Zr0.53Ti0.47)O3 (PZT) ferroelectric thin films of various thicknesses were grown on Pt(111)/Ti/SiO2/Si(100) substrates by a simple sol-gel process, without reflux or high temperature distillation to remove water. The thin films were annealed at 550-600DGC in an oxygen atmosphere by rapid thermal annealing (RTA), and highly (111)-oriented PZT thin films have been obtained. The microstructure and surface morphologies of the thin films have studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). AFM images shown that the highly (111) oriented PZT thin films on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si substrates with grain sizes of 0.2-0.3 and 2-3 *mm, and root mean square roughnesses of 0.92 and 34 nm, for PZT films with thicknesses of 0.3 and 0.56 *mm, respectively. The remanent polarization (Pr) and coercive electric field (Ec) values were 32.2 *mC/cm2 and 79.9 kV/cm, 27.7 *mC/cm2 and 54.4 kV/cm; at 100 kHz, the dielectric constant and dissipation factor were 539 and 0.066, 821 and 0.029, respectively, for PZT films with thicknesses of 0.3 and 0.56 *mm.