DEPOSITION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF THIN FERROELECTRIC LEAD LANTHANUM ZIRCONATE TITANATE (PLZT) FILMS ON SAPPHIRE FOR SPATIAL LIGHT MODULATORS APPLICATIONS

Ferroelectric lead lanthanum zirconate titanate (PLZT) films are deposited on r-plane sapphire using R-F triode magnetron sputtering. Perovskite PLZT films with the desired composition (9/65/35) are obtained using compensated deposition techniques around 500-degrees-C and post deposition annealing at 650-degrees-C. The deposited films exhibit good optical and electro-optical properties. The room temperature dielectric constant of the films was 1800 at 10 KHz. The refractive index of the films was in the range 2.2-2.5. The films showed a quadratic E-O effect with R = 0.6 x 10(-16) m2/V2. The development of PLZT on silicon-on-sapphire smart spatial light modulators, using these films, is also explored.