Effect of lanthanum content and substrate strain on structural and electrical properties of lead lanthanum zirconate titanate thin films

We investigated the structural, electrical properties of Pb1−xLax(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3 (PLZT) thin films under tensile (Pt/Si) and compressive (LaNiO3/Ni) strain-states, respectively. The lattice parameter, grain size, remanent polarization of the thin films decreased with increasing La content. For identical compositions, the Curie temperature, remanent polarization, and coercive field were always higher for films on LaNiO3/Ni than Pt/Si. These suggest that the electrical properties of PLZT thin films can be tuned by altering the dopant level and substrate-induced strain levels.