Chemistry of surface nanostructures in lead precursor-rich PbZr 0.52 Ti 0.48 O 3 sol-gel films

I Gueye (1) , G Le Rhun (1) , P Gergaud (1) , O Renault (1) , E Defay (2) , N Barrett (3)

1 CEA-LETI - Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives - Laboratoire d'Electronique et de Technologie de l'Information
2 LIST - Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology
3 SPEC - UMR3680 - Service de physique de l'état condensé

We present a study of the chemistry of the nanostructured phase at the surface of lead zirconium titanate PbZr 0.52 Ti 0.48 O 3 (PZT) films synthesized by sol-gel method. In sol-gel synthesis, excess lead precursor is used to maintain the target stoichiometry. Surface nanostructures appear at 10% excess lead precursor whereas 30% excess precursor inhibits their formation. Using the surface-sensitive, quantitative X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and glancing angle X-ray diffraction we have shown that the chemical composition of the nanostructures is ZrO 1.82−1.89 rather than pyrochlore often described in the literature. The presence of a possibly discontinuous layer of wide band gap ZrO 1.82−1.89 could be of importance in determining the electrical properties of PZT-based metal-insulator-metal heterostructures.

Keywords: PZT; X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy; Surface phase; Diffraction; SEM

Domains: Physics [physics]; Condensed Matter [cond-mat]; Materials Science [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]

I Gueye, G Le Rhun, P Gergaud, O Renault, E Defay, et al.. Chemistry of surface nanostructures in lead precursor-rich PbZr 0.52 Ti 0.48 O 3 sol-gel films. Applied Surface Science, 2016, 363, pp.21-28. ⟨10.1016/j.apsusc.2015.11.118⟩. ⟨cea-01272812⟩