Recovery of plasma-induced damage in PZT thin film with O2 gas annealing

In this study, recovery of plasma induced damage in PZT [Pb(Zr,Ti)O-3] thin film with O-2 annealing has been investigated. The PZT thin films were etched as a function of Cl-2/Ar and additive CF4 into Cl-2(80%)/Ar(20%). The etch rates of PZT thin films were 160 nm/min at Cl-2(80%)/Ar(20%) gas mixing ratio and 197 nm/min at 30% additive CF,, into Cl-2(80%)/Ar(20%). The etched profile of PZT films was obtained above 70 by the scanning electron microscopy (SEW In order to recover properties of PZT thin films after etching, the etched PZT thin films were re-annealed at various temperatures in O-2 atmosphere. From the hysteresis curves, ferroelectrical properties are improved by O-2 re-annealing process. The improvement of ferroelectric behavior at annealed sample is consistent with the increase of the (100) and (200) PZT phase revealed by X-ray diffraction (XRD). From X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis, the intensity of the Pb-O, Zr-O and Ti-O peak, are increased and the chemical residue peak is reduced by O-2 re-annealing. The ferroelectric behavior is consistent with the d electric nature of TixOy and is recovered by O-2 recombination during a rapid thermal annealing process. From the atomic force microscopy (AFM) images, it shows that the surface roughness of re-annealed sample after etching is improved. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.