A study of ferroelectric thin films deposited on a LaNiO3 barrier electrode by nebulized spray pyrolysis

Thin films of ferroelectric PbTiO3 (PT) and Pb(Zr0.5Ti0.5)O-3 (PZT) as well as antiferroelectric PbZrO3 (PZ) have been prepared on LaNiO3/SiO2/Si subs trates by nebulized spray pyrolysis (NSP) of metal-organic precursors. The metallic LaNiO3 (LNO) electrode layer was also deposited by NSP. The ferroe lectric films obtained show satisfactory morphology and desirable dielectri c properties. Typical values of the coercive field, remnant polarization an d dielectric constant (300 K) for the PT/lNO/SiO2/Si film are 170 kV cm(-1) , 22 mu C cm(-2) and 210, respectively, with the corresponding values for t he PZT/LNO/SiO2/Si film being 120 kV cm(-1), 13 mu C cm(-2) and 540, respec tively. The PZ/LNO/SiO2/Si film shows typical antiferroelectric characteris tics including the electric-field induced reversible antiferroelectric-ferr oelectric transition. The various films deposited on LNO/SiO2/Si by NSP are comparable in all respects to those prepared on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si by the same technique.