Surface morphology and chemical states of highly oriented PbZrO3 thin films prepared by a sol-gel process

Antiferroelectric PbZrO3 thin films have been prepared on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si(100) substrates by a simple sol-gel process. The structure and surface morphology evolution were investigated by an X-ray diffraction (XRD) and an atomic force microscopy (AFM), and a scanning electron microscopy (SEM), respectively, The results shows that the films grown on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si (100) substrates have a pseudocubic perovskite structure with high (100) oriention, and the surface morphology evolution of the thin film depends on annealing temperature. The films have three dimensional island growth. The chemical states and chemical composition of the film was also determined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), near the film surface. Pb and Zr exist mainly in the forms of PbZrO3. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.