Effect of heat-treatment on LaNiO3 film electrode of PZT thin films derived by a sol–gel method

Lanthanum nickel oxide (LaNiO3 or LNO) conducting thin films that could be used as electrodes for improving fatigue and aging properties of ferroelectric thin films were investigated. In this paper, LNO films were directly spin-coated onto SiO2/Si(1 0 0) substrates followed by thermal treatment in air and in oxygen. It was found that crack-free dense and uniform films with good crystallinity and medium grains were obtained, preferentially (1 0 0)-oriented LNO thin films could be formed at a lower annealing temperature of 550 °C and that with the increase in thermal annealing temperature the LNO thin film possessed better electrical properties especially at 750 °C. However, the LNO film displayed a structure transformation above 850 °C. A phenomenon was found that the first heat-treatment temperature and time played a key role to determine the crystallite size of LNO films. A subsequent deposition of a sol–gel derived Pb(Zr0.53Ti0.47)O3 (PZT53/47) thin film on the LNO-coated SiO2/Si(1 0 0) substrates was also found to have a (1 0 0)-oriented texture. Moreover, the Au/PZT/LNO capacitor was found to significantly improve the fatigue and the effects of the LNO electrodes to the fatigue were discussed.