Oxygen transport during annealing of Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 thin films in O2 gas and its effect on their conductivity

• Published in: Journal of materials research Vol. 16; no. 10; pp. 3005 - 3008
• Main Authors: Ayguavives, F., Agius, B., EaKim, B., Vickridge, I.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, USA Cambridge University Press 01.10.2001
• ISSN: 0884-2914; 2044-5326
• DOI: 10.1557/JMR.2001.0412

Lead zirconate titanate (PZT) thin films were deposited in a reactive argon/oxygen gas mixture by radio-frequency-magnetron sputtering. The use of a metallic target allows us to control the oxygen incorporation in the PZT thin film and also, using oxygen 18 as a tracer, to study the oxygen diffusion in the thin films. Electrical properties and crystallization were optimized with a 90-nm PZT thin film grown on RuO2 electrodes. These PZT films, annealed with a very modest thermal budget (550 °C) show very low leakage current densities (J = 2 × 10−8 A/cm2 at 1 V). In this article we show that a strong correlation exists between the oxygen composition in the PZT film and the leakage current density.