Surface morphology and chemical states of highly oriented PbZrO3 thin ®lms prepared by a sol±gel process

Antiferroelectric PbZrO3 thin ®lms have been prepared on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si(1 0 0) substrates by a simple sol±gel process. The structure and surface morphology evolution were investigated by an X-ray diffraction (XRD) and an atomic force microscopy (AFM), and a scanning electron microscopy (SEM), respectively. The results shows that the ®lms grown on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si (1 0 0) substrates have a pseudocubic perovskite structure with high (1 0 0) oriention, and the surface morphology evolution of the thin ®lm depends on annealing temperature. The ®lms have three dimensional island growth. The chemical states and chemical composition of the ®lm was also determined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), near the ®lm surface. Pb and Zr exist mainly in the forms of PbZrO3. # 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved