STRUCTURAL AND ELECTRICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF HETEROEPITAXIAL LEAD-ZIRCONATE-TITANATE THIN-FILMS

PbZrxTi1-xO3 films have been grown heteroepitaxially onto (001)SrTiO3 and SrRuO3/(001)SrTiO3 by organometallic chemical vapor deposition. As a start, the microstructure of PbZrxTi1-xO3 films on (001)SrTiO3 was studied as a function of the zirconium fraction, n. Rutherford backsca ttering spectrometry, including channeling experiments, and transmissi on electron microscopy have shown that the microstructure is dominated by the crystal structure of the PbZrxTi1-xO3. In the case of tetragon al PbZrxT1-xO3 the films may contain a-axis oriented regions. These re gions have not been observed for films with a composition giving a rho mbohedral unit cell. Despite the rather large mismatch of rhombohedral PbZrxTi1-xO3 with the (001)SrTiO3, values as low as 4% for the minimu m channeling yield have been obtained. For a rhombohedral film the fer roelectric properties have been measured. To this end a single crystal line PbZr0.8Ti0.2O3 film was grown onto (001)SrTiO3 provided with a he teroepitaxial SrRuO3 electrode grown by pulsed-laser deposition. A het eroepitaxial top electrode was grown onto the PbZrxTi1-xO3 using the s ame technique. The channeling minimum yield of the heteroepitaxial sta ck was 11%. The hysteresis loop saturates already at 1 V. Endurance up to 10(12) cycles was observed without severe degradation of the ferro electric properties. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.