Influences of the Amorphous Phase on Local Structures and Properties of Ferroelectric Thin Films

Abstract The electrical properties of ferroelectric thin films are sensitive to structural disorders. However, the harmful structural defects are often difficult to be characterized by conventional characterization techniques. Here, we demonstrate that the local structures of lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ferroelectric thin films with different amorphous phase contents can be determined using x-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) spectroscopy of synchrotron radiation. The results showed that XAFS spectroscopy is a powerful technique to quantify the amorphous phase content in ferroelectric thin films. Influences of the amorphous phase on local structures and properties of ferroelectric thin films were further discussed. Keywords: Lead zirconate titanateferroelectric thin filmsXAFSamorphous phase Acknowledgments The authors acknowledge the support of National Natural Science Foundation of China (10979013), Beijing Natural Science Foundation (2092020), Beijing Nova Program (2007B025), Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2012IM030500) and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (FRF-SD-12–027A). One of the authors (D.G.) also thanks the 'Bairen Program' of Chinese Academy of Sciences for its financial support.