Epitaxial 0.65PbMg1/3Nb2/3O3–0.35PbTiO3 (PMN–PT) thin films grown on LaNiO3/CeO2/YSZ buffered Si substrates

Ferroelectric PMN–PT thin films with a thickness of 600 nm were epitaxially grown on buffered Si (0 0 1) substrates at a substrate temperature that ranged from 550 to 700 °C using pulsed laser deposition (PLD). LaNiO3 (LNO) electrode thin films with a resistivity of ∼1900 μΩ cm were epitaxially grown on CeO2/YSZ buffered Si (0 0 1) substrates. The PMN–PT thin films grown at 600 °C on LNO/CeO2/YSZ/Si substrates had a pure perovskite and epitaxial structure. The PMN–PT films exhibited a high dielectric constant of about 1818 and a low dissipation factor of 0.04 at a frequency of 10 kHz. Polarization-electric-field (P-E) hysteresis characteristics, with a remnant polarization of 11.1 μC/cm2 and a coercive field of 43 kV/cm, were obtained in the epitaxial PMN–PT films.

Research highlights▶ The 600-nm thick perovskite PMN–PT films on LNO/CeO2/YSZ tri-layer buffered Si (0 0 1) substrates were epitaxially grown at 600 °C by PLD technique. ▶ The capacitors showed a dielectric constant of 1818 and a dissipation factor of 0.04 at 10 kHz. ▶ The hysteresis loop for the pyrochlore-free PMN–PT films demonstrated the ferroelectric behavior of the films with a remnant polarization of 11.1 μC/cm2 and a coercive field of 43 kV/cm.