Growth and Properties of (001)-oriented Pb(Zr₀.₅₂Ti₀.₄₈)O₃/LaNiO₃ Films on Si(001) Substrates with TiN Buffer Layers

Abstract

Pulsed laser deposition has been used to grow Pb(Zr₀.₅₂Ti₀.₄₈)O₃ (PZT)/LaNiO₃ (LNO) heterostructures with restricted crystallographic orientations on bare Si(001) and SiO₂-coated Si(001) substrates, using TiN buffer layers. The effect of background gas pressure on orientation of the thin films was investigated in detail. XRD analyses showed that under optimized conditions, (001)-oriented PZT/LNO/TiN heterostructures could be grown on either Si(001) or SiO₂/Si substrates. The (001)-textured PZT films had remnant polarizations as high as 23µC/cm², and also had a low coercive field. Up to 10¹⁰ switching cycles have been achieved in these PZT films.