The lead zirconate titanate (PZT) thin film was deposited on platinized silicon wafer substrate by the rf magnetron sputtering method. In order to investigate the effect of cooling ambient, oxygen partial pressure was controlled during cooling PZT films. The PZT films cooled at lower oxygen partial pressure had perovskite phase and pyrochlore phase in both as-grown and postannealed films, but in the PZT films cooled at higher oxygen partial pressure, pyrochlore phases were not detected by XRD. As the oxygen partial pressure became lower during cooling, the capacitors had low values of remanent polarization and coercive field for as-grown films. The PZT capacitor with such a low value was recovered by postannealing in air, but its electrical properties had the same tendency before and after annealing. Microstructure was also affected by cooling ambient. Higher oxygen partial pressure on cooling reduced the number of very fine grains, and enhanced uniform grain distribution. Fatigue characteristics were also enhanced by cooling at higher oxygen partial pressure. However, the imprint was negligible irrespective of oxygen partial pressure upon cooling. The cooling procedure at higher oxygen ambients is believed to reduce the amounts of nonferroelectric second phases and oxygen vacancies. We find that oxygen partial pressure during cooling is a considerable process parameter. Therefore, care should be taken in treating the parameter after depositing films.
