Oxygen-plasma treatment for low-temperature processing of lead-zirconate-titanate thin films

Abstract

Low-temperature processing of ferroelectric thin films has remained a major barrier to their practical applications. In this work, RF and microwave oxygen-plasma treatment has been employed for low-temperature processing of ferroelectric thin films of sol-gel-derived Pb(Zrx,Ti1-x)O3 (PZT). The as-coated PZT films were annealed in oxygen ambience at 450-°C. Subsequent RF oxygen-plasma treatment at 200 and 300-°C resulted in fair ferroelectric hystereses. Besides, room-temperature microwave oxygen-plasma treatment gave rise to remanent polarizations as large as 15-μC/cm2. © 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.