Microstructural and compositional studies of liquid-phase deposition derived PbTiO3 thin films on LaNiO3 substrates

PbTiO3 thin films were successfully deposited on the LaNiO3 (LNO) substrates by the liquid-phase deposition (LPD) method and postannealing at various temperatures. The structure, morphology and composition of the films were investigated by some analytical techniques. The as-deposited films are amorphous and composed of densely packed spherical particles. The films with the grain size of 180 nm start to decompose and crystallize into perovskite structure at 450 8C and show a perovskite single phase with tetragonal structure after annealing at 650 8C. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis reveals that the as-deposited film contains fluorine and carbon as major impurities. Fluorine could be completely eliminated by annealing at 650 8C in air