Sol-gel processing of perovskite thin films

Sol-gel processing has been employed for more than 10 years for the preparation of thin perovskite films, especially with the composition lead zirconate titanate (PZT). There are some attempts to optimize the resulting thin film properties by developing a more fundamental understanding of the processing-properties relationship. The strategies to overcome remaining problems in the preparation of high quality thin films are either to control the structural evolution by the applied chemistry or to be more focussed on the optimization of the thermal treatment. It is evident that the densification as well as the crystallization of the deposited films strongly influence their functional properties. In this paper, an overview is given about the role of chemistry and the subsequent thermal treatment of thin films. Specific examples will be given to demonstrate that the structural evolution of the deposited thin films strongly depends on the used thermal ramp and the deposited film thickness.