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 RF triode magnetron sputtering. Perovskite PLZT films with the desired composition (9/65/35) are obtained using compensated deposition techniques around 500 degrees C and postdeposition annealing at 650 degrees C. The deposited films exhibit good optical and electrooptical properties. The room temperature dielectric constant of the films was 1800 at 10 kHz. The refractive index of the films was in the range of 2.2-2.5. The films showed a quadratic electrooptic effect with R=0.6 x10(-16) m(2)/V(2). The development of PLZT on silicon-on-sapphire smart spatial light modulators using these films is also explored.