Ferroelectrics, 292: 119–125, 2003 Copyright c  Taylor & Francis Inc. ISSN: 0015-0193 print / 1563-5112 online DOI: 10.1080/00150190390222907 Piezoelectric Responses of Highly-Oriented Tetragonal Pb(Zr 0.4 Ti 0.6 )O 3 Thin Films DESHENG FU, 1,2 KAZUMI KATO, 1 KENJI ISHIKAWA, 3 YASUTAKA YOSHIMI, 4 and HISAO SUZUKI 4 1 Ceramic Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, 2266-98 Anagahora, Shimoshidami, Moriyama-ku, Nagoya, 463-8560, Japan 2 Research Institute of Electronics, Shizuoka University, Johoku 3-5-1, Hamamatsu 432-8011, Japan 3 Faculty of Policy Management, Yokkaichi University, Kayo-cho 1200, Yokkaichi 512-8512, Japan 4 Department of Materials Science; Shizuoka University, Johoku 3-5-1, Hamamatsu 432, Japan (Received September 15, 2002) [111]- and [001]&[100]-highly-oriented Pb(Zr 0 . 4 Ti 0.6 )O 3 (PZT40/60) thin films were prepared by a chemical solution deposition on Si substrates. The influences of orientations on the piezo- electric responses of the thin films have been investigated by a charge integration technique based on the direct piezoelectric effect. A piezoelectric relaxation has been observed in the thin films. Contributions of relaxation have been separated successfully from the intrinsic ef- fects. The intrinsic d intri 33 values of poled films are about 192 and 179 pC/N for the [111]- and [001]&[100]-oriented films, respectively. It has been shown that the contribution of relaxation is significantly greater in the [111]-oriented films than that in the [001]&[100]-oriented films. Keywords: Ferroelectric, piezoelectric, relaxation, PZT, thin film PACS: 77.65.-j, 77.84.Dy, 77.55.+f, 77.80.Dj, 77.22.Gm INTRUDUCTION Lead zirconate titanate (PZT) ferroelectric thin films have attracted great attention in recent years as promising materials for use in nonvolatile mem- ories and in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) [1–3]. Their dielec- tric and ferroelectric properties have been intensively investigated. However, the piezoelectric properties of PZT films are lack of understanding. This is mainly due to the following two factors. One is that the thick-film deposition technique has not been established. For the actuator application, over 10 µm [585]/119