Excimer UV-assisted rapid thermal annealing of PbLa (Zr,Ti) O3 thin films by a sol-gel deposition method

Abstract

Excimer UV-assisted rapid thermal annealing (UV-RTA) process has been employed to fabricate sol-gel derived ferroelectric Pb0.97 La0.03 (Zr0.53 Ti0.47) O3 (PLZT) thin films on PtTiSi O2 Si substrates. X-ray diffraction analysis showed that the single phase PLZT thin film can be achieved at a relatively low processing temperature of 580 °C. The films appeared to have improved dielectric properties with dielectric constant (ε) and loss (tan δ) values of 3300 and 0.03 at 1 kHz, respectively. Comparatively good remnant polarization (Pr) value of 36 μC cm-2 and coercive field (Ec) value of 60 kV cm-1 along with a good fatigue resistance up to 1010 switching cycles have been observed. This method of fabrication of the Pb-based material with the aid of UV-RTA at a comparatively lower temperature opens the door for their better employability in the Si integrated circuit technology. © 2007 American Institute of Physics.