Light scattering from Sol-gel processed lead zirconate titanate thin films

Abstract

Abstract The results of light scattering measurements on a series of five Pb(Zr0.4Ti0.6)O3 thin films prepared by a sol-gel method are presented. The films differed due to the addition of different amounts of the chelating agent acetylacetone to the precursor solution immediately before spin coating. Two types of light scattering measurements were performed: angularly resolved light scattering and spectrally resolved light scattering. While the angularly resolved light scattering measurements indicated only small differences between the films, the spectrally resolved measurements revealed a trend of decreasing light scattering with increasing acetylacetone concentration. This apparent contradiction is resolved by a careful analysis of the theoretical aspects of thin-film light scattering. The advantages of performing spectrally resolved light scattering measurements when assessing the optical quality of thin films is stressed.