Influence of purge gas on the characteristics of lead–zirconium–titanate thin films prepared by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition

In order to optimize the metalorganic chemical vapor deposition process for PbZrxTi1−xO3 (PZT) thin films, the effect of purge gas species was investigated. Two steps of gas input process for stabilizing reaction chamber pressure, the gas flow prior to PbTiO3 (PTO) seed layer deposition and PZT thin film deposition, were varied and their effect on structural and electrical properties were examined with regard to the memory device application. PZT film properties exhibited remarkable dependency on the gas species before PTO seed deposition, and insignificant dependency on the gas species before PZT film deposition. With the optimized pre-deposition gas flow, PZT thin film showed excellent properties such as high (1 1 1)-orientation (92.2%), high remnant polarization value of 71 μC/cm2 at 3 V. Retention property also showed a heavy dependency on the pre-deposition gas flow that 91.1% of initial charge could be maintained after 100 h of baking at 150 °C.