Pulsed laser deposition and characterization of Pb(Zr, Ti)O3 and LaNiO3 thin films

Abstract

Highly (100) oriented Pb(Zr, Ti)O3 (PZT)/LaNiO3 (LNO) films and biaxially aligned LNO films on amorphous substrates were achieved using pulsed laser deposition (PLD). Distribution of the orientation axes of LNO and PZT films grown by PLD and its effect on ferroelectric properties were evaluated. Mechanisms of tilt in the orientation axes of the films produced by PLD and biaxially aligned films developed on amorphous surface by tilted substrate PLD were discussed. The residual stresses of the thin films on single crystal substrate were measured from the changes in curvature of the substrate, which was assessed using high-resolution X-ray rocking curve technique (HRRC). A new approach for determining X-ray elastic constants of thin films was developed based on the residual stresses measured by HRRC. X-ray diffraction with in-situ four-point bending was explored to measure both the in-plane Younga??s modulus and Poissona??s ratio of the crystalline films. New technique for measuring piezoelectric constants of thin films(both d33(f) and d31(f)) using X-ray diffraction was developed.