Domain structures and piezoelectric properties of Pb(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O-3 nanocapacitors

Abstract

Epitaxial ferroelectric Pb(Zr(0.2)Ti(0.8))O3 (PZT) nanoislands and nanocapacitors were fabricated by stencil mask-assisted pulsed laser deposition. By x-ray diffraction reciprocal space mapping it was observed that PZT nanoislands contain mainly c-domains and residual fractions of tilted and nontilted a-domains, while extended thin films contain only c-domains and tilted a-domains. The presence of nontilted a-domains manifests clearly that the misfit strain is significantly reduced in PZT nanoislands, compared to the thin film. Some of the a-domains turned out to be switchable under an external electric field due to the strain relaxation in the PZT nanocapacitors. The piezoresponse of PZT nanocapacitors was higher than that of continuous thin-film capacitors. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3475476]