Sol-gel synthesis and characterization of 0.5Pb(Zr_0.52Ti_0.48)O₃-0.5Pb(Fe_0.5Nb_0.5)O₃ thin films

Abstract

A simple route for the fabrication of (1-x)Pb(Zr_0.52Ti_0.48)O₃-xPb(Fe_0.5Nb_0.5)O₃ [(1-x)PZT-xPFN] thin films is presented. The PZT and PFN precursor solutions were obtained by a modified sol-gel process based on the use of acetoin as chelating agent. Both precursors were mixed to obtain a particular composition: 0.5PZT-0.5PFN. The precursor solution was deposited onto platinized silicon substrates by spin coating. Two different thermal treatments were compared: conventional furnace annealing (CFA) and rapid thermal annealing (RTA). Structural and morphological characterizations made by DRX and AFM indicated that RTA favors the perovskite phase formation. Dielectric measurements showed negligible frequency dispersion and low dissipation factor. It was finally shown that the films display ferroelectric and ferromagnetic behavior at room-temperature.

Keywords:

• multiferroics
• thin films
• sol-gel

Acknowledgments

We thank Santiago Carreira and Laura Steren for their cooperation with magnetic measurements and Mariela Desimone for the Raman measurements.

Additional information

Funding

The authors thank the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET, PIP-2013-0553) and Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica (ANPCyT, PICT 2013- 423) for the financial support.