Characterization of PZT nanostructures by infrared spectroscopy

PZT (40/60) nanocrystals were prepared by chemical solution deposition on (0 0 1) MgO substrates. The method allows to prepare uniform and good quality structures of 15–20 nm high and about 100 nm lateral size. We measured the infrared reflectance of PZT nanocrystals on MgO substrates in the far and mid infrared range from 30 to 4000 cm−1 and we found spectral features in the spectrum, which can be related to infrared active phonons of PZT. The features occur in the spectrum as three groups corresponding to cubic perovskite modes. The phonon peaks could be fitted by the model of damped harmonic oscillators. The island-like nature of PZT could be described by a dielectric function in effective medium approximation, which could be used for qualitative evaluation of the spectra.