Effect of seed layer on the ferroelectric properties and leakage current characteristics of sol–gel derived vanadium doped PbZr0.53Ti0.47O3 films

• Published in: Journal of materials science. Materials in electronics Vol. 20; no. 6; pp. 555 - 559
• Main Author: Valavan, S. E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston Springer US 01.06.2009; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry and Materials Science; Condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties; Condensed matter: structure, mechanical and thermal properties; Dielectrics, piezoelectrics, and ferroelectrics and their properties; Exact sciences and technology; Fatigue; Fatigue, brittleness, fracture, and cracks; Ferroelectricity and antiferroelectricity; Instruments, apparatus, components and techniques common to several branches of physics and astronomy; Materials Science; Mechanical and acoustical properties of condensed matter; Mechanical properties and methods of testing. Rheology. Fracture mechanics. Tribology; Mechanical properties of solids; Metals. Metallurgy; Optical and Electronic Materials; Physics; Scanning electron microscopy; Scanning probe microscopes, components and techniques; Ferroelectric Property; Remnant Polarization; Leakage Current Density; Morphotropic Phase Boundary; Seed Layer; Atomic force microscopy; Scanning electron microscopy; Polarization; Surface morphology; Lead titanates; Fatigue; XRD; PZT; Leakage currents; Ferroelectric properties; Switching; Lead zirconates; Surface structure; Vanadium additions; Multilayers; Ferroelectricity; Microstructure; Quaternary compounds; Current density; Sol-gel process; Smooth surface
• ISSN: 0957-4522; 1573-482X
• DOI: 10.1007/s10854-008-9764-4

In this paper, we report the ferroelectric properties and leakage current characteristics of vanadium-doped PbZr 0.53 Ti 0.47 O 3 (PZTV) films grown on various seed layers prepared by a sol–gel process. The PZTV multilayered film of ~250-nm-thick showed excellent ferroelectric properties, with a large remnant polarization ( P r ) of ~30 μC/cm 2 ( E c  ~ 90 kV/cm), a high saturation polarization ( P s ) of ~85 μC/cm 2 for an applied field of 1,000 kV/cm, fatigue-free characteristics of up to ≥ 10 10 switching cycles, and a low leakage current density of 7 × 10 −8 A/cm 2 at 100 kV/cm. X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) investigations indicated that PZTV films grown on PbZr 0.53 Ti 0.47 O 3 /PbLa 0.05 TiO 3 (PZT/PLT) seed layers exhibited a dense, well-crystallized microstructure with random orientations and a rather smooth surface morphology.