Abstract
This letter reports and discusses the observation of sol‐gel solid phase epitaxy (SPE) of (110) Pb0.99Nb0.02(Zr0.52Ti0.48)0.98O3 or PNZT(2/52/48) on 3 in. diam (011̄2) sapphire. The epitaxial nature (with at least single crystal‐like texture) of these films was ascertained by HRTEM and x‐ray diffraction studies, including pole figure analysis. Such PNZT thin films (0.6 μm) were transparent to wavelengths between 0.4 and 5.6 μm, and exhibited an optical band gap and a refractive index (at 0.6328 μm), of 3.6 eV and 2.5–2.6, respectively.