High speed optoelectronic response from the edges of lead zirconate titanate thin film capacitors

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Abstract
This letter reports on a high speed (∼10 ns), nondestructive, polarization-dependent photoresponse from lead zirconate titanate (PZT) thin films, when illuminated with λ=532 nm, at ∼mW/μm2 of incident optical power. This photoresponse emerges primarily from the edges of the sandwich ferroelectric capacitors, consisting of PZT films with predominant c-axis orientation. This response, in contrast with the thermally triggered effect, is unipolar in nature and occurs at an order of magnitude lower power level, and therefore offers a greater application potential. Its dependence on the crystal orientation and remanent polarization in the PZT film, and therefore its ability to track the built-in E fields within the film, may offer such photoresponse as a high speed nondestructive evaluation tool.