Reduction of film thickness for chemical solution deposited PbZr0.3Ti0.7O3 thin films revealing no size effects and maintaining high remanent polarization and low coercive field

Polycrystalline Pb(Zr0.3,Ti0.7)O3 (PZT) thin films were prepared on platinized silicon wafers by chemical solution deposition (CSD) with thicknesses down to 30 nm. Electrical measurements with the superior ferroelectric properties of high remanent polarization (Pr) and low coercive field (Ec) will be presented for thicknesses down to 50 nm. In order to decrease the thickness of electrically dense PZT thin films by the CSD method experiments have been performed by using different degrees of dilutions of the precursor stock solutions, i.e. instead of diluting the PZT stock solution with 2-butoxyethanol in the standard ratio of 1:1 before the spin-on process, the dilution is increased stepwise to a ratio of 1:4. In addition the films have been annealed in nitrogen atmosphere instead of the typical oxygen atmosphere which has been shown to strongly improve a preferential (111) orientation of the PZT film [G. J. Norga, L. Fe, Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. Vol. 655, CC9.1.1 (2001)]. The approach of Norga et al. is confirmed and complemented by means of electrical hysteresis measurements.