DEPOSITION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF PBTIO3 THIN-FILMS GROWN BY RADIO-FREQUENCY SPUTTERING ON MGO(100)

A series of experiments for growing epitaxial PbTiO3 thin films have b een made with radio frequency (r.f.) magnetron sputtering. The effects of various sputtering parameters such as substrate temperature, r.f. input power, gas composition, gas pressure and deposition rate on the chemical and structural characteristics of PbTiO3 thin films were inve stigated. Highly c-axis oriented epitaxial ferroelectric PbTiO3 thin f ilms have been obtained under optimum sputtering conditions. The activ ation energy for the epitaxy formation was observed to be about 0.92 e V. The crystallinity of the epitaxial films was evaluated using rockin g curve measurement as well as Rutherford backscattering spectrometry channeling measurement. The cross-sectional transmission electron micr oscopy study revealed that the c-axis oriented epitaxial film had 90 d egrees domain structures. The epitaxial relationship of the film was P bTiO3(001)//MgO(001) and PbTiO3[100]//MgO[100] in the c-axis oriented domain, its surface microstructure was highly mosaic. A good transpare ncy in the region above 400 nm to infrared, and a remanent polarizatio n of 34 mu C cm(-2) and a coercive field of 97 kV cm(-1) were obtained .