Preparation and Characterization of Alkoxide-Derived Lead-Free Piezoelectric Barium Zirconate Titanate Thin Films with Different Compositions

Lead-free barium zirconate titanate Ba(Zr1-xTix)O3; BZT100$x$ $0\leq x\leq 0.1$) thin films were deposited on lanthanum nickel oxide (LNO)/Pt/SiO2/Si substrate by chemical solution deposition (CSD). The Zr content was changed up to $x=0.1$ to determine the effect of composition on the electrical properties. An LNO buffer layer was selected to control the crystal orientation of BZT thin films. The use of the LNO seeding layer resulted in the highly (100) and (001) oriented BZT100$x$ films for all compositions. The dielectric and ferroelectric properties of the BZT100$x$ thin films depend on the compositions. The $d_{33}$ values of the BZT100$x$ thin films measured using the piezoelectric force microscope (PFM) changed in accordance with the crystal symmetry change. The maximum $d_{33}$ value was approximately 45 pm/V at BZT3 composition, showing the possibility of lead-free piezoelectric barium zirconate titanate thin films obtained by CSD.