A new and rapid heat-treatment process for fabricating lead zirconate titanate thin film

A new and rapid heat-treatment process for fabricating lead zirconate titanate, Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3(PZT), ferroelectric thin films has been developed. The main equipment of this heat-treatment process is termed caterpillar furnace. The furnace is divided into three parts, including preheating, heating and cooling. This process offers several advantages over conventional thermal annealing, including rapid heat-treatment process (<10 min every layer film), pure film structure and better reproducibility. The precursor solution was synthesized by mixing and reacting lead acetate trihydrate, titanium isopropoxide, tetrabutyl zirconate, acetylacetone and 2-methoxyethanol. The precursor was investigated by DSC–TG, and the PZT thin film was investigated by XRD. XRD analysis shows that the thin films possess single-phase perovskite-type structure. A dielectric constant and loss tangent of thin film were measured about 231 and 0.02 at 10 kHz, respectively. The capacitance–voltage (C–V) and hysteresis loops of PZT films showed that the films possess fine ferroelectric properties.