Enhanced energy storage density and energy efficiency of epitaxial PLZT (Pb_0.9La_0.1(Zr_0.52Ti_0.48)O₃) relaxor-ferroelectric thin-films deposited on silicon by pulsed laser deposition

Minh D.Nguyen, Chi T. Q.Nguyen, Evert P.Houwman, Hung N.Vu, Matthijn Dekkers and Guus Rijnders
APL MATERIALS 4, 080701 (2016)

PLZT relaxor-ferroelectric thin films were grown on SrRuO/SrTiO/Si substrates by pulsed laser deposition. A large recoverable storage density (U_reco) of 13.7 J/cm³ together with a high energy efficiency (η) of 88.2% under an applied electric field of 1000 kV/cm and at 1 kHz frequency was obtained in 300-nm-thick epitaxial PLZT thin films. These high values are due to the slim and asymmetric hysteresis loop when compared to the values in the reference undoped epitaxial (PZT) lead zirconate titanate ferroelectric thin films (U_reco= 9.2 J/cm³ and η = 56.4%) which have a high remanent polarization and a small shift in the hysteresis loop, under the same electric field.