High-permittivity and low-loss dielectric tunable pyrochlore thin films deposited by radio frequency magnetron sputtering from a lead zinc niobate target

Since Bi2O3–ZnO–Nb2O5 (BZN) pyrochlore thin films have been introduced as a tunable dielectric, the substitution of Bi with Pb could be a reasonable choice. The PbO–ZnO–Nb2O5 (PZN) cubic pyrochlore thin films were produced by radio frequency sputtering, and their dielectric properties, in terms of tunability, were measured. Up to 33.4% of tunability and comparable K factors with BZN films were obtained. The effects of film crystallization, along with substrate heating and post-annealing on the dielectric properties, were similar to those of BZN. However, strong texturing developed in the PbO–ZnO–Nb2O5 (PZN) films deposited at a high substrate temperature, which caused degradation of the loss tangent and K factor.