Fabrication of pure-perovskite PMN–PT thin films on SrTiO3 substrates using pulsed laser deposition

Lead magnesium niobate–lead titanate ((1−x)Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3–xPbTiO3 (x=0.20,0.33,0.50), PMN–PT) thin films have been successfully deposited on SrTiO3(1 0 0) substrates by pulsed laser deposition (PLD). The result of X-ray diffraction (XRD) showed that the PMN–PT thin films were c-orientated. The effects of deposition conditions, such as deposition temperature, deposition oxygen pressure, pulsed laser repeated frequency, cooling rate, pulsed laser energy and post annealing, were studied first on thin-film quality. It was found that the deposition temperature was very different for the different mole fractions of the thin films. The range of the deposition temperature of high-qualitied thin films is very narrow, about ±2 °C. Such harsh conditions are rare in other thin films, which is also the main reason why PMN–PT thin films are very difficult to prepare.