Characteristics of nano-thickness lead zirconate titanate thin film for high-density storage applications

We successfully fabricated lead zirconate titanate (PZT) films with film thickness of 70 nm using a modified solution combined with lead titanate (PTO) seed layer. Throughout various approaches, we have found that the microstructure of PZT film plays an important role in determining the hysteretic properties particularly below the thickness of 100 nm. We modified the ligands of precursors to improve the microstructure of thin PZT film. In addition, we also adopted a thin PTO seed layer to enhance the initial nucleation density. Finally, we could obtain good electric properties similar to those of 250 nm PZT. The hysteretic properties such as Q–V, and hysteresis loop seem to be excellent enough to operate at as low as 2 V, which is a prerequisite property for high-density storage applications.