High quality oxide thin film depositions using a sol-gel method

High quality lanthanum-modified lead zirconate titanate (PLZT) and strontium titanate (STO) thin films were deposited on sapphire substrates using an advanced sol-gel method. This new deposition technique brought high quality epitaxial growth of PLZT thin films on r-cut sapphire and STO thin films on c-cut sapphires. The PLZT film showed high electro-optic (EO) coefficients that were almost comparable to those of bulk PLZTs. In turn, doped STO thin films showed less conductivity compared to that of bulk. This may come from the existence of the grain boundaries in the STO thin films. Further improvement is under investigation in order to achieve higher conductivity of the STO thin films