Thermal annealing effects on the structural and electrical properties of PMN-PZ-PT ternary thin films deposited by a sol-gel process

Thin film samples of 0.15PMN-0.45PZ-0.40PT (PMN-PZ-PT) three-component system were prepared on Pt-coated Si substrates by a sol-gel process. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) show that the above films can be formed in a single-phase perovskite structure at 800 °C. This was further confirmed by the dielectric and ferroelectric properties of the samples annealed at different temperatures. It was demonstrated that the morphology and microstructures of the PMN-PZ-PT films were quite sensitive to their annealing conditions, which strongly affects their electrical properties.