Characterization of Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O-3/BiFeO3 multilayer thin films prepared by a sol-gel method

Abstract

Multiferroic Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O-3/BiFeO3 multilayer thin films were fabricated by the spin-coating method on Pt/Ti/SiO2/p-Si(100) substrates alternately using Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O-3 and BiFeO3 metal alkoxide solutions. The PZT/BFO multilayer thin films show the formation of layers and a change of lattice constant caused by different structure of each other. The coating and heating procedure was repeated several times to form Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O-3/BiFeO3 multilayer films. All films showed the typical XRD patterns of the perovskite polycrystalline structure without the presence of a second phase such as Bi2Fe4O3. Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O-3/BiFeO3 multilayer films showed a uniform and small grain size rather than pure Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O-3 and BiFeO3 films. We think that the crystal growth of the upper BiFeO3 layers can be influenced by the lower Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O-3 layers, and choosing the initial Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O-3 layer or a seeding layer has controlled the microstructural behavior of the resultant film. Leakage current density of the Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O-3/BiFeO3 multilayer film was 5.74 x 10(-6) A/cm(2) at 150 kV/cm.