Temperature dependence of ferroelectric and dielectric properties of PbZr[sub 0.5]Ti[sub 0.5]O[sub 3] thin film based capacitors.

The temperature dependence of the ferroelectric and dielectric properties of PbZr[sub 0.5]Ti[sub 0.5]O[sub 3] thin films deposited on LaNiO[sub 3]-coated SrTiO[sub 3] substrate was investigated. The results showed that both the saturation polarization and remanent polarization increased with decreasing temperature from 300 to ∼50 K, and decreased as the temperature continued to decrease below 40 K. The capacitance of the PbZr[sub 0.5]Ti[sub 0.5]O[sub 3] ferroelectric thin film capacitor as a function of small ac field and temperature was measured, and the data were processed using Rayleigh law. It was demonstrated that both the reversible and irreversible contributions to the dielectric constant decreased with decreasing temperature; however, they showed an increase when the temperature dropped below 50 K. The anomalous behavior of the temperature dependence may be attributed to a phase transition in the PbZr[sub 0.5]Ti[sub 0.5]O[sub 3] thin film in the vicinity of 50 K. © 2002 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]