Phase Transformation in PZT Films Studied by Scanning Probe Microscopy

PZT thin films on Pt/SiO
₂
/Si substrate were prepared by RF magnetron sputtering. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) were employed to investigate some behavior of the phase transformation process from non-perovskite to perovskite. It was found that the ferroelectric domains in PZT film during a rapid thermal annealing grew in rosette mode, the correlation between topography and perovskite phase area was formed in early thermal annealing process, and then was broken as further annealed time increased. With the annealed time increased, some phase transformation area changed from no ferroelectric domain to mono ferroelectric domain and to multi ferroelectric domain finally.