AbstractThe properties of ferroelectric thin films can be significantly influenced by the presence of point defects. The concentration of vacancies presented in these thin films is known to be one of the key parameters causing the degradation of these films when these films are subjected to polarization reversals.To study the effects of the vacancy concentration on the ferroelectric properties, sol gel PZT films and powders were annealed in different oxygen partial pressures. For the PZT films, the reduction of oxides to pure metals was not observed even with films annealed at 2×10−5 atmosphere of oxygen partial pressure. Samples annealed at low oxygen partial pressure (for instance, 10−3 and 2×10−5 atmosphere), which has more Pb and O2 depletions and consequently has more Pb and O2 vacancies, cannot be switched easily. The ratios of coercive field after and before fatigue increase as the defect concentrations of the annealed samples increase.
