Oxygen-plasma treatment for low-temperature processing of lead–zirconate–titanate thin films

Low-temperature processing of ferroelectric thin films has remained a major barrier to their practical applications. In this work, RF and microwave oxygen-plasma treatment has been employed for low-temperature processing of ferroelectric thin films of sol–gel-derived Pb(Zrx,Ti1−x)O3Pb(Zrx,Ti1−x)O3 (PZT). The as-coated PZT films were annealed in oxygen ambience at 450 °°C. Subsequent RF oxygen-plasma treatment at 200 and 300 °°C resulted in fair ferroelectric hystereses. Besides, room-temperature microwave oxygen-plasma treatment gave rise to remanent polarizations as large as 15 μC/cm2.