ORIENTED LEAD TITANATE FILM GROWTH AT LOWER TEMPERATURES BY THE SOL-GEL METHOD ON PARTICLE-SEEDED SUBSTRATES

An approach to fabricate lead titanate (PbTiO3) films with preferred o rientation on arbitrary substrates by a sol-gel method was developed, To ensure a preferred crystallographic orientation on the substrates w ith different crystal structure, well-defined platelet PbTiO3 particle s were used as seeds, Because the basal plane of the platelet-shaped p articles was the (001) plane, the particles aligned with the c-axis pe rpendicular to the substrates. During crystallization of the sol-gel P bTiO3 films on the particle-seeded substrate, preferential nucleation occurred on seeded particles with the same crystallographic orientatio n as the particles at a much lower temperature, In the current study, (100) and (001) textured PbTiO, films have been produced on various su bstrate materials such as silicon, silicate glass, indium tin oxide (I TO) glass, and titanium metal at temperatures as low as 275 degrees C, The microstructure of the films nas examined by scanning electron mic roscopy and atomic force microscopy. Limited ferroelectric properties also were determined, to underscore the preferred orientation that was produced in these materials.