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Indium-zinc-oxide (IZO) films were prepared by spin coating an ethanol-ethylene-glycol precursor solution with a Zn/(In + Zn) ratio of 0.36 on glass. The effects of temperature on the structure, microstructure, electrical, and optical properties of the IZO thin films were investigated by thermal analysis, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, electron and atomic-force microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and variable-angle spectroscopic ellipsometry. The prepared IZO thin films heated at 500, 600, and 700 °C in air were transparent, without long-range ordering, and with an RMS surface roughness of less than 1 nm. The lowest electrical resistivity at room temperature, 0.0069 Ωcm, was observed for the 115-nm-thick IZO thin film heated at 600 °C in air and subsequently post-annealed in Ar/H2. The thin film exhibited a microstructure characterized by grains typically 20 nm in size and had no organic residues. This film exhibits uniaxial optical anisotropy due to its ultra-thin lamellae with a high electron density. The ordinary refractive index was fitted as a Tauc-Lorentz-Urbach function, which is typical of an indirect absorption edge occurring in amorphous semiconductor materials. The principal absorption peak with an onset at about 2.8 eV and a Tauc gap energy of ∼2.6 eV is similar to those observed for In2O3. The described process of chemical solution deposition and subsequent curing is promising for the low-cost fabrication of IZO thin films for transparent electronics, and can be used to tune the structure and microstructure of IZO thin films, as well as their electrical and optical properties.

PbZr0.38Ti0.62O3 and PbZr0.36Ti0.64O3 thick films deposited by screen printing on (0 0 0 1) single crystal sapphire substrates and prepared at two different sintering temperatures, were studied by Fourier-transform infrared reflectivity, time-domain THz transmission spectroscopy and micro-Raman spectroscopy. The dielectric response is discussed using the Lichtenecker model to account for the porosity of the films and to obtain the dense bulk dielectric functions. Results are compared with bulk tetragonal PZT 42/58 ceramics. The dynamic response in the films is dominated by an overdamped lead-based vibration in the THz range, as known in PZT, but its evaluated dielectric contribution is affected by the porosity and roughness of the surface.

Room-temperature fabrication of functional ceramic films using powder aerosol deposition (AD) is important for practical applications. However, the as-processed ferroelectric films show unusual temperature-dependent dielectric response, including enhanced conductivity in the as-processed state and subsequent significant increase in the permittivity following heat treatment. In this work, we investigate the influence of the residual internal stresses developed during the high-impact consolidation process on the dielectric response. Moreover, the recombination of charged defects generated during deposition is driven by the temperature and the atmospheric condition during the heat treatment as well as the carrier gas type used during deposition. Thermal treatment up to 500 °C in different atmospheres was used to tune the dielectric and ferroelectric response, highlighting that irrespective of the type of carrier gas, AD deposition process induces charged defects in polar oxide ceramics that can be reduced through heat-treatment far-below their bulk sintering temperature. Macroscopic electromechanical properties are contrasted to in-situ heating scanning transmission electron microscopy to observe possible local effects, such as crystallization, grain growth, crystal defect structure, or grain reorientation. In addition X-ray diffraction and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy studies were conducted to gain insight into the effect of annealing on the crystal structure and local moisture adsorption.