Fabrication Of Sub-Micro Size PZT Array And Their Ferroelectric Properties

Many applications of ferroelectric thin films（such as PZT） require fine patterning of a thin film at first, therefore, the patterning process for the ferroelectric films has become one of the important research directions in the field of ferroelectric materials.Conventional ways of preparing fine patternings of ferroelectric thin films are photolithography, chemical etching, plasma etching, reactive ion etching and so on. In this paper, the sol-gel in conjunction with photochemical reaction process and sol-gel-template method were proposed to prepare sub-micro Size PZT Arrays. At the same time, the online-operation of TF analyzer and atomic force microscope （AFM） was discussing to in-situ measure the hysteresis loops of the cell in PZT array. The results are listed as follows:（1） The photosensitive PZT sols and their gel films were prepared by sol-gel process. Based on the photosensitivity of the PZT gel films, two-dimensional （2D） arrays with different size of the PZT gel films were fabricated by UV irradiation through a mask and twice exposure of double-beam interference laser on the gel film, then the ceramic arrays of PZT thin films were obtained by heat treatment. The minimal size of the fine patterns is 300nm.（2） PZT ceramic arrays with the size of 500nm×500nm×20nm have been fabricated by sol-gel template method in the pores of ZrO₂ 2D-surface relief gratings in lattice type.（3） AFM mode of SPM and the ferroelectric analyzer in online application can be used to carry out the direct tests of hysteresis loops of PZT array cells obtained by different fine pattern processes, the results indicate that PZT cells with a size of 480 nm× 480 nm × 40 nm, 500nm× 500nm×20nm, 40μm×40μm×40nm can realize the polarization reversion under the alternating applied electric field, showing the apparent ferroelectricity.