Structural, ferroelectric and dielectric properties of In2O3:Sn (ITO) on PbZr0.53Ti0.47O3 (PZT)/Pt and annealing effect

Ferroelectric indium tin oxide (ITO) on PbZr_0.53Ti_0.47O₃ (PZT)/Pt structure, prepared by RF sputtering onto SiO₂/Si substrates, is studied in order to investigate the effect of ITO as a top electrode in these systems. X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) experiments were performed to study the structure and the surface morphology of the samples. From X-ray diffraction, we observe that the ITO thin film grows with the (1 1 1) texture and the peaks attributed to PZT are all from the perovskite phase. The average roughness (RMS) of the PZT surface is found to be 1.650 nm from AFM experiment. The ferroelectric and dielectric properties were inferred from polarization hysteresis loops, capacitance and dielectric constant measurements. These properties have been compared to those of the widely studied Pt/PZT/Pt system prepared under the same conditions. The effect of ITO/PZT/Pt annealing has been studied. Annealing at 400 °C leads to 13% increase in the dielectric constant ?_r.