Surface analysis of reactive sputtered Pb(Zr,Ti)O-3 thin films by XPS

In this work, the chemical composition profile near the stuface of Pb(ZrTi)O-3 thin films which were deposited by large-area multi-target reactive sputtering was investigated by nondestructive angle-resolved X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. We obtained a lead depleted stuface layer with an increased ZrI(Zr+Ti) ratio compared to the film bulk. The presence of this damaged surface layer was attributed to ion bombardment from the low-pressure plasma at the sputter target. This stuface layer was found to absorb oxygen and moisturefirom the environment.