Characterization of PZT ferroelectric thin films prepared by a modified sol-gel method

This paper presents the growth and characterization of PZT ferroelectric thin films by using the sol-gel technology. In this paper, we study the influences of annealing temperatures, different film thickness and different substrates, including titanium and platinum layers on silicon substrate, on the ferroelectric performance of PZT thin films by analyzing the polarization hysteresis. The polarization hysteresis of PZT thin films is measured by using a Sawyer Tower circuit. The results show that the remnant polarization of PZT thin films are higher with the increase of thickness, and the remnant polarization are 8.6 muC/cm² and 11.0 muC/cm² on Ti electrode and Pt/Ti electrode at the annealing temperature of 650degC, respectively. Thus the PZT thin films prepared by using the sol-gel method can be used for developing PZT-based ferroelectric MEMS devices.