Anion-assisted pulsed laser deposition of lead zirconate titanate films

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Abstract
A modification of the conventional pulsed laser deposition technique is presented whereby a low energy (≤0.5 eV) electron emitting filament was placed over the substrate during deposition. Using this experimental arrangement, it was possible to deposit oriented films of the ferroelectric perovskite PbZr0.52Ti0.48O3 on 〈100〉 MgO substrates at 550 °C. When optimized in terms of emission current, the use of the filament caused a decrease by six orders of magnitude in the ratio of a nonferroelectric pyrochlore phase relative to the ferroelectric perovskite phase. The surface morphology concomitantly changed from porous to essentially smooth as the electron emission current was increased. The surface reaction of oxygen anions generated by electron attachment to oxygen molecules is believed to be responsible for these crystallographic and morphological changes.