Low-temperature preparation of hydrothermal lead zirconate titanate thin films

In preparing lead zirconate titanate thin films under hydrothermal conditions, we investigated the effects of concentrations of nutrient and mineralizer, reaction time and reaction temperature on crystallinity, grain size and shape. Experiments were performed in the ranges of 0.1-1.0M Pb(NO₃)₂, and 0-6.0M KOH with varying reaction time from 0 to 48 hours at 60-200 °C. In the experiment, lead zirconate titanate thin film of homogeneous crystalline grain was obtained through a 24 hour reaction with 0.4M Pb(NO₃)₂ and 5.0M KOH at 140 °C. The thickness of the film was 0.9-1.6 μm, and it exhibited a saturation polarization (Ps) of 18.3 μC/cm², remnant polarization (Pr) of 7.4 μC/ cm₂ and coercive field (Ec) of 0.41 kV/cm. The dielectric constant and loss (δ) measured at 1 kHz were approximately 1020 and 0.15, respectively.