Materials Science and Engineering B87 (2001) 87 – 91 Letter Preparation and characterization of lead lanthanum zirconate titanate (PLZT) thin films using an organic self-assembled monolayer template A.K. Garg a,1 , A.K. Tripathi a , T.C. Goel a, *, Michael M.A. Sekar b,2 , Chaim N. Sukenik b, * a Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi 110016, India b Department of Chemistry, Bar Ilan Uniersity, Ramat Gan 52900, Israel Accepted 27 June 2001 Abstract PLZT films in peroveskite phase have been prepared by sol–gel processing. It has been observed that the use of organic self-assembled monolayer (SAM) templates improves the crystallization characteristics and lowers the sintering temperature. The dielectric, and ferroelectric properties have also shown some improvement and are reported along with microstructural studies. © 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. www.elsevier.com/locate/mseb 1. Introduction The unique properties of ferroelectric materials, com- bined with design flexibility and miniaturization offered by thin film-geometry and also developments in inte- grated circuitry and electro-optic technologies, have fueled great interest in ferroelectric thin films. Thin films of ferroelectric devices are being considered for numerous applications in electronic and electro-optic devices including non-volatile semiconductor memories, optical waveguide devices, spatial light modulators, switching capacitors for integrated circuitry, SAW devices, pyroelectric devices, and imaging sensors [1 – 3]. Another potential application for ferroelectric thin lay- ers is micropositioning and actuation, with recent devel- opments for micromotors and other microelectro- mechanical systems (MEMS). The exploitation of ferroelectric thin films for elec- tronic and electro-mechanical applications has been restricted due to limitations in deposition processes for device-quality ferroelectric thin-films. However, recent advances in thin film deposition technology, especially in the areas of sol–gel technology and metal organic chemical vapor deposition have generated significant excitement within the electronic ceramics community. For thin ferroelectric applications, lead-based per- ovskite oxides such as PT, PZT and PLZT have been the major materials of interest. The primary objective in fabricating thin films has been to reproduce the polar properties of the bulk materials. Usually a cubic py- rochlore phase is also obtained in PZT and PLZT thin films which is otherwise perovskite, leading to degrada- tion of the ferroelectric properties of the film. More- over, most methods reported require a sintering temperature of 600 °C. There is a need to reduce this processing temperature to 500 °C for comfort- able integration of these films with silicon technology. A number of studies [4–10] have been carried out to investigate the deposition and optimization of ferroelec- tric thin films. However, a coherent view of the relative importance of the factors that control the structural and electrical properties of PLZT thin films is still lacking. * Corresponding authors. 1 Ministry of Information Technology, Electronic Niketan, New Delhi. 2 PE Biosystems, Foster City, CA, USA. 0921-5107/01/$ - see front matter © 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII:S0921-5107(01)00702-4