Microstructural and compositional studies of liquid-phase deposition derived PbTiO3 thin films on LaNiO3 substrates

PbTiO3 thin films were successfully deposited on the LaNiO3 (LNO) substrates by the liquid-phase deposition (LPD) method and post-annealing at various temperatures. The structure, morphology and composition of the films were investigated by some analytical techniques. The as-deposited films are amorphous and composed of densely packed spherical particles. The films with the grain size of 180 nm start to decompose and crystallize into perovskite structure at 450 °C and show a perovskite single phase with tetragonal structure after annealing at 650 °C. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis reveals that the as-deposited film contains fluorine and carbon as major impurities. Fluorine could be completely eliminated by annealing at 650 °C in air.