Elastic and relaxor behavior in nanocrystalline La-modified PZT-films

By reduction of the dimensions of the crystallites of ferroelectric and rel axer ceramics in the nanoscale range, one expects significant changes in th eir properties. In the case of PLZT 8/65/35 as a typical relaxer material o ne would expect a quantitative change of the relaxer properties, while ferr oelectric materials are expected to show relaxer behavior because their cry stallites have a size comparable to the relaxors nanodomains. For electric, respectively dielectric and elastic investigations thin amorphous films of PLZT were produced by rf-sputtering at room temperature and different grai n sizes in the nanoscale range were prepared by a subsequent annealing proc ess.