Wafer-scale arrays of epitaxial ferroelectric nanodiscs and nanorings

Wafer-scale arrays of well-ordered Pb(Zr0.2Ti0.8) O-3 nanodiscs and nanorings were fabricated on the entire area (10 mm x 10 mm) of the SrRuO3 bottom electrode on an SrTiO3 single-crystal substrate using the laser interference lithography (LIL) process combined with pulsed laser deposition. The shape and size of the nanostructures were controlled by the amount of PZT deposited through the patterned holes and the temperature of the post-crystallization steps. X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy confirmed that (001)-oriented PZT nanostructures were grown epitaxially on the SrRuO3(001) bottom electrode layer covering the (001)-oriented single-crystal substrate. The domain structures of PZT nano-islands were characterized by reciprocal space mapping using synchrotron x-ray radiation. Ferroelectric properties of each PZT nanostructure were characterized by scanning force microscopy in the piezoresponse mode.