CHARACTERIZATION OF DIELECTRIC AND ELECTROOPTIC PROPERTIES OF PLZT-9 65/35 FILMS ON SAPPHIRE FOR ELECTROOPTIC APPLICATIONS/

Lead lanthanum zirconate titanate (PLZT) thin films were deposited on r-plane sapphire at low temperatures by RF triode magnetron sputtering using lead compensated hot-pressed targets. To obtain fully perovskit e phase in the films, two types of post-deposition processing were inv estigated: rapid thermal annealing (RTA) and furnace annealing (FA). D ielectric and electro-optic properties of PLZT films were found to be strongly dependent on annealing conditions. The peak dielectric consta nt of the films were 1200 and 2800 with Curie temperatures of 110 degr ees C and 190 degrees C after RTA and FA processing, respectively. The dielectric losses in the films were fairly low; tan deltas were less than 0.02 after RTA and less than 0.04 after FA processing. The films showed good optical transmission characteristics after annealing and a n anomalously large effective quadratic electro-optic effect was obser ved in one furnace annealed film.