Electrical properties of lead zirconate titanate thick film containing micro- and nano-crystalline particles

We report the ferroelectric, dielectric and piezoelectric properties of a dense and crack-free lead zirconate titanate (Pb(Zr_0.52Ti _0.48)O₃, PZT) thick film containing micro- and nano-crystalline particles. The results show that these electrical properties are dependent strongly on the annealing temperature and film thickness. For the different-annealing-temperature and different-thickness films, the higher-annealing-temperature thicker ones show the larger remnant polarization and smaller coercive field. The dielectric results show that relative dielectric constant achieves the largest value at annealing temperature of 700°C, and increases with the increasing film thickness. For the piezoelectric properties, the longitudinal piezoelectric coefficient increases linearly with the film thickness increasing and the 4-μm-thick PZT film shows the largest value of about 200.65 pC/N. Therefore, the PZT thick films present good electric properties and enlarged potential in MEMS applications.