Thick films fabricated by laser ablation of PZT microparticles

The laser ablation of microparticles (LAM) process was used on PZT powders to produce nanoparticles that were then supersonically impacted onto substrates. The resulting films were found to be dense and adherent but were primarily amorphous. SEM and TEM observations showed that, unlike other materials that have been produced by the LAM process, the average compositions of these films differed substantially from the starting powders. Preliminary attempts to crystallize these films showed that some perovskite PZT could be formed by annealing the films at high temperature. However, large-scale composition variations present in the LAM-produced films inhibited crystallization at lower temperatures. The origin of these composition variations and their influence on crystallization are discussed.