Preparation and characterization of preferred oriented PZT films on amorphous substrates

The (001) preferred orientation of Nb-doped Pb(Zr_0.52Ti_0.48) O₃ (PZT) thin films was successfully realized on amorphous glass substrate with LaNiO₃(LNO) as electrode by rf-sputtering method. It was found that the LNO film greatly promotes formation of the PZT film with pervoskite phase on amorphous substrate and the preferred orientation of the PZT film depends strongly on the process of preparation. The experimental results show that the dielectric constant and loss of the PZT films with the (001) preferred orientation are 1308 and 0.042, respectively, at 1 kHz, 0.05 V. The remanent polarization (P_r), saturation polarization (P_s) and coercive field (E_c) are 34.5, 43 C/cm² and 105 kV/cm, respectively. The PZT films also show a 33 kV/cm internal bias field due to its (001) preferred orientation. The piezoelectric coefficient d₃₃ of the PZT film without the poled treatment is about 15 pC/N due to its (001) preferred orientation. The effect of the foreign stress on the piezoelectric voltage response of the PZT/LNO/glass was investigated. The results make us consider using the PZT film as an artificial skin to realize the self-diagnosis of amorphous materials under the action of stress.