In situ growth of highly oriented Pb(Zr0.5Ti0.5)O3 thin films by low-temperature metal-organic chemical vapor deposition

Highly oriented, polycrystalline Pb(Zr0.5Ti0.5)O-3 (PZT) thin films were successfully grown on RuO2/SiO2/(001)Si using metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) at 525 degrees C. The orientation of the PZT film was controlled by using MOCVD-deposited highly textured RuO2 bottom electrodes. A (001)-oriented PZT film was observed for growth on (101)-textured RuO2. In contrast, for (110) RuO2, the growth of (001) PZT was greatly suppressed while the growth of both (110) and (111) were enhanced, resulting in a poorly (001)-textured polycrystalline film. The as-grown PZT films exhibited a dense columnar microstructure with an average grain size of 150-750 nm. Both PZT films showed excellent ferroelectric properties without any postgrowth annealing, The (001) highly oriented PZT films showed significantly higher values of remnant polarization (P-r=49.7 mu C/cm(2)) and saturation polarization (P-s=82.5 mu C/cm(2)). In comparison, for the PZT films grown on (110) RuO2, P-r and P-s were 21.5 and 35.4 mu C/cm(2), respectively. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics.