Phase compositions and ferroelectric properties of Pb(Zr0.52,Ti0.48)O3 thin films with different highly orientations prepared by a sol–gel route

It is shown that different highly oriented Pb(Zr0.52,Ti0.48)O3 films can be obtained on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si substrate using a sol–gel technique. The effects of pyrolysis temperature on the orientation, phase composition and ferroelectric properties of the films are investigated. It is found the ferroelectric hysteresis loops of (1 1 1)-oriented film, (1 1 1) and (1 0 0) mix-oriented film can both be saturated when the external electric field is large enough, whereas the hysteresis loop of (1 0 0)-oriented film is difficult to saturate. The analysis of X-ray diffraction indicated the possibility of different phase composition in different oriented films under large film residual stress. Higher remnant polarization (53 μC/cm2) for (1 0 0)-oriented film can be attributed to its more tetragonal phase composition, which results in that the in-plane domain switching can continuously occur with external electric field increasing.