THE DOMAIN SWITCHING AND STRUCTURAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PLZT BULK CERAMICS AND THIN-FILMS CHEMICALLY PREPARED FROM THE SAME ACETATE PRECURSOR SOLUTIONS

Lead lanthanum zirconate titanate (PLZT) ferroelectrics were produced in bulk ceramic and thin-film form from the same acetate precursor sol utions in order to compare their electrical and physical properties. B ulk ceramics were hot pressed from chemically coprecipitated powders, and thin films were fabricated by spin coating on silver foil and plat inum-coated silicon wafer substrates. A number of PLZT compositions we re investigated, including ferroelectric memory materials near the mor photropic phase boundary with 2% La, memory and slim-loop ferroelectri c x/65/35 (La/Zr/Ti) compositions with up to 12% La, as well as some a ntiferroelectric thin-film materials. Internal film stress from therma l expansion mismatch between films and substrates was found to contrib ute to differences in electrical properties and Curie temperatures bet ween the thin film and bulk materials, as were interface layers betwee n the films and substrates, mechanical clamping from the substrates an d grain size.