Structural and electrical properties of Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 films grown by molecular beam epitaxy

Single-crystal, single-phase Pb(ZrxTi1-x )O-3 films (x=0-0.4) were grown on (001) SrTiO3 and SrTiO3:Nb substrates by molecular beam epitaxy. Layer-by-layer growth of the Pb(Zr, Ti)O-3 films was achieved by using PbTiO3 buffer layers between the SrTiO3 substrates and the Pb (Zr, Ti)O-3 films. The layers with low Zr content showed high crystallinity with full width at half maximum of omega-rocking curves as low as 4 arc min, whereas increase in Zr concentration led to pronounced angular broadening. The PbZr0.07Ti0.93O3 films exhibited remanent polarization as high as 83 mu C/cm(2), but local areas suffered from nonuniform leakage current. (C) 2007 American Institute of Physics.