Impact of low pressure consolidation annealing on electrical properties of sol–gel derived Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 films

We demonstrate drastic improvement of electrical properties of sol–gel derived PZT thin films by using low-pressure consolidation annealing. PZT thin films have been prepared on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si substrates using Pb1.2Zr0.4Ti0.6O3 source solution. We have employed low-pressure consolidation annealing at 400 °C for 10 min at 35 Torr before the crystallization anneal. The consolidated films were then annealed at 550–600 °C for 15–30 min in O2 for crystallization. A remanent polarization (Pr) of 35 μC/cm2 with a coercive filed (EC) of 64 kV/cm was obtained for the PZT film crystallized at 600 °C with low-pressure consolidation process. Furthermore, it is also demonstrated that the leakage current density of the PZT film fabricated with low-pressure consolidation process is lower than that of the film fabricated by the conventional process. The possible crystallization mechanism of low-pressure consolidation process is discussed.