Antiferroelectric lead zirconate thin films by pulsed laser ablation

Abstract

Lead Zirconate (PbZrO₃) thin films were deposited by pulsed laser ablation method. Pseudocubic (110) oriented in-situ films were grown at low pressure. The field enforced anti-ferroelectric (AFE) to ferroelectric (FE) phase transformation behaviour was investigated by means of a modified Sawyer Tower circuit as well as capacitance versus applied voltage measurements. The maximum polarisation obtained was 36 µC cm^-2 and the critical field to induce ferroelectric state and to reverse the antiferroelectric states were 65 and 90 kV cm^-1 respectively. The dielectric properties were investigated as a function of frequency and temperature. The dielectric constant of the AFE lead zirconate thin film was 190 at 100 kHz which is more than the bulk ceramic value (120) with a dissipation factor of less than 0.07. The polarisation switching kinetics of the antiferroelectric PbZrO₃ thin films showed that the switching time to be around 275 ns between antipolar state to polar states.