Aerosol Plasma Deposition Method for Preparation of Lead Zirconate Titanate Thick Films

Abstract

Lead zirconate titanate (PZT) thick films were grown by a novel aerosol plasma deposition (APD) method, which combines aerosol deposition (AD) and low-temperature microwave plasma. In our set-up, the deposition rate used in the APD method was about one order of magnitude higher than that in the AD method, which can be attributed to the charging and decomposition effects of the plasma on moving agglomerates to form a trapped jet. While an as-grown APD film deposited at 200°C with a thickness of ∼10 µm showed no ferroelectric hysteresis loop, a PZT film annealed at 600°C showed a remanent polarization of ∼26 µC/cm 2 and a coercive field of ∼110 kV/cm.