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Sputtered lead scandium tantalate thin films: Crystallization behaviour during post-deposition annealing

  • Z. Huang
  • , P. P. Donohue
  • , M. A. Todd
  • , J. C. Jones
  • , R. W. Whatmore
  • Cranfield University
  • Defence Science and Technology Laboratory
  • Department of Advanced Materials

Research output: Other outputpeer-review

Abstract

Lead scandium titanate (PST) thin films were deposited by RF dual magnetron sputtering and then annealed either by vacuum furnace or combined rapid thermal annealing (RTA) and furnace anneal. The film structure was investigated by x-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy techniques. Lead loss was more severe using furnace annealing than the combined RTA and furnace anneal. The annealed films were characterized by the presence of voids and exhibited relaxor ferroelectric characteristics. PST perovskite crystal grains were found to co-exist with pyrochlore matrix in the furnace-only annealed films, whilst in RTA annealed films no apparent pyrochlore morphology was observed in the TEM image. Lead was found to diffuse through the bottom electrode Pt layer during the annealing. Films treated by combining RTA and furnace annealing have shown pyroelectric coefficients under field of up to 500 μC m-2 K-1, a dielectric loss of below 0.007 and merit figure for thermal detection of 2.5 × 10-5 Pa-1/2.

Original languageEnglish
Number of pages9
Edition21
Volume34
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 7 Nov 2001

Publication series

NameJournal of Physics D: Applied Physics
PublisherInstitute of Physics
ISSN (Print)0022-3727

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