Crystallographic parameters of spherulitic structures in ferroelectric film

Abstract

The symmetry and structure of ferroelectric films determine most of their properties. Nonlinear optical technique of second harmonic generation (SHG) is widely accepted for remote and fast qualitative characterization of ferroelectric films. In this article, we develop a method for quantitative characterization of the local symmetry and structure of PZT thin films. Depending on the annealing time of pyrochlore phase two types of structure have been obtained: continuous perovskite polycrystalline film consisting of truncated spherulites and isolated spherulites embedded into pyrochlore matrix. The method is based on the SHG azimuthal dependences measurements followed by fitting procedure and gives the ratio of monoclinic to tetragonal phases as well as the fraction of differently oriented crystallographic faces of both of these phases.

Keywords:

Additional information

Funding

The work is supported by Russian Science Foundation Grant # 22-12-00334. The work was performed using the equipment of the Center for Collective Use of RTU MIREA (Agreement No. 075-15-2021-689 with the Ministry of Education and Science).