Low-temperature growth of high-quality lead zirconate titanate thin films by 28 GHz microwave irradiation

Pb (Zrx Ti1-x) O3 (PZT) thin films were coated on Pt/Ti/ SiO2 /Si substrates by a sol-gel method and then crystallized by 28 GHz microwave irradiation. The elevated temperature generated by microwave irradiation to obtain the perovskite phase is only 480 °C, which is significantly lower than that of conventional thermal processing. X-ray diffraction analysis indicated that the PZT films crystallized well in the perovskite phase. A scanning electron microscopy image showed that the film has a spherulite grain structure and most of the grains are approximately 2 μm in size. The average values of the remanent polarization, coercive field, dielectric constant, and loss of the PZT films are 40 μCcm2, 50 kV/cm, 1100, and 004, respectively. It is clear that microwave irradiation is effective for obtaining well-crystallized PZT films with good properties at low temperatures.