SOL-GEL PROCESSING OF PEROVSKITE THIN-FILMS

Sol-gel processing has been employed for more than 10 years for the pr eparation of thin perovskite films, especially with the composition le ad zirconate titanate (PZT). There are some attempts to optimize the r esulting thin film properties by developing a more fundamental underst anding of the processing-properties relationship. The strategies to ov ercome remaining problems in the preparation of high quality thin film s are either to control the structural evolution by the applied chemis try or to be more focussed on the optimization of the thermal treatmen t. It is evident that the densification as well as the crystallization of the deposited films strongly influence their functional properties . In this paper, an overview is given about the role of chemistry and the subsequent thermal treatment of thin films. Specific examples will be given to demonstrate that the structural evolution of the deposite d thin films strongly depends on the used thermal ramp and the deposit ed film thickness.