Dielectric and optical properties of electroceramic PBZNZT thin films prepared by pulsed laser deposition process

The 0.6[0.94Pb(Zn1/3Nb2/3)O3 + 0.06BaTiO3] + 0.4[0.48(PbZrO3) + 0.52(PbTiO3)], PBZNZT, thin films were synthesized by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) process. The PBZNZT films possess higher insulating characteristics than the PZT (or PLZT) series materials due to the suppressed formation of defects, therefore, thin-film forms of these materials are expected to exhibit superior ferroelectric properties as compared with the PZT (or PLZT)-series thin films. Moreover, the Ba(Mg1/3Ta2/3)O3 thin film of perovskite structure was used as buffer layer to reduce the substrate temperature necessary for growing the perovskite phase PBZNZT thin films. The PBZNZT thin films of good ferroelectric and dielectric properties (remanent polarization Pr = 26.0 μC/cm2, coercive field Ec = 399 kV/cm, dielectric constant K = 737) were achieved by PLD at 400 °C. Such a low substrate temperature technique makes this process compatible with silicon device process. Moreover, thus obtained PBZNZT thin films also possess good optical properties (about 75% transmittance at 800 nm). These results imply that PBZNZT thin films have potential in photonic device applications.