Epitaxial growth of multilayered (Bi,La)4Ti3O12/Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 ferroelectric thin films with different orientations

Epitaxial (Bi,La)₄Ti₃O₁₂ (BLT) thin films, epitaxial Pb(Zr,Ti)O₃ (PZT) thin films, and epitaxial multilayered BLT/PZT ferroelectric thin films with different orientations were prepared on SrTiO₃ (STO) single crystal substrates by pulsed laser deposition. From X-ray pole-figures and electron diffraction patterns, the epitaxial orientation relationships between BLT layers, PZT layers, and STO substrates were identified to be (1) BLT(001)//PZT(001)//STO(001), and BLT110]//PZT100]//STO100] for the multilayered thin films on (001)-oriented STO substrates, and (2) BLT(118)//PZT(011)//STO(011), and $ {\text{BLT}}{\left {\overline{1} \overline{1} 0} \right]}//{\text{PZT}}{\left {100} \right]}//{\text{SrTiO}}_{3} {\left {100} \right]} $ for the multilayered films on (011)-oriented STO substrates. Tri-layered films of the same compositions showed well-defined hysteresis loops as well as a high fatigue resistance up to 1?×?10¹⁰ switching cycles.