Microstructures of Sputtered PbTiO₃ Thin Films

Abstract

Ultrathin stoichiometric PbTiO₃ films, 10∼100nm thick, were deposited on (001)SrTiO₃ and miscut (001)SrTiO₃ substrates at 600°C by rf planar magnetron sputtering to understand the microstructure of initial film growth. The electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis suggested the epitaxial growth of (001)PbTiO₃/(001)SrTiO₃ with three dimensional crystal orientation, however the PbTiO₃ films still included crystal boundaries. Deposition on a miscut (001)SrTiO₃ substrate under stoichiometric conditions reduced the crystal boundaries and provided continuous ultrathin films of single crystal PbTiO₃.