We have fabricated ferroelectric Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 (PZT) thin films using low-pressure consolidation process during the sol-gel method. Drastic improvements of electrical properties have been obtained for the PZT thin films fabricated with low-pressure consolidation process. A remanent polarization (Pr) of 37 µC/cm2 and a coercive field (EC) of 64 kV/cm have been achieved. In addition, the leakage current of the PZT films fabricated using low-pressure consolidation is 102 times smaller than that of the films fabricated with the usual process of sol-gel method. It is also found that the low-pressure consolidation process is effective on improvements of electrical properties of PZT films fabricated at lower crystallization temperatures and with sub-100 nm thickness.

Surface morphology and piezo response on SBT films were simultaneously measured by scanning probe microscopy. In a sample that had many short-circuited capacitor pads, some curious structures were observed on the SBT film surface. The piezo image partially did not correspond with the AFM image. Some specific grains were revealed to be piezo defects. Also observed were some smaller grains with flat surface, which showed good ferroelectricity. Next, we carried out simultaneous measurements of surface morphology and leakage current. The scanning at an intentionally high voltage was repeated until the leakage points were found. We found the leakage points, which were on some large grains, not at grain boundaries or on the flat smaller grains. In another SBT film derived from an unrefined source, many ferroelectric defects were observed despite there being no curious structures on the surface. Purity has an important bearing on the ability to avoid these defects. Thus, these nanoscopic investigations would greatly facilitate understanding of the mechanisms responsible for problems and enable optimization of the process conditions in device fabrication.

Co-ferrite thin films have been fabricated on Corning glass substrates by a chelating sol-gel process. Structural and magnetic properties of the films have been studied as a function of annealing temperature using an X-ray diffraction (XRD) and a vibrating sample magnetometer. XRD results revealed that most of the Co-ferrite grains were randomly oriented. Rapid annealing (RA) and standard annealing (SA) processes were used for the variation of heat treatment and the characteristic comparison. Coercivity was changed with the thermal condition and the magnetization increased with the soaking time. With prolonged soaking time, however, the coercivity decreased due to the diffusion of cations from the glass substrate. RA in the preparation of Co-ferrite thin films was effective for preventing interdiffusion at interfaces and for forming a single phase in the case of reduced soaking time. A yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) buffer layer between the Co-ferrite layer and the substrate was effective for improving the magnetic properties of the films at higher temperatures. It was observed that Co-ferrite thin films were composed of grains typically 35 nm in size and their rms roughness was approximately 1.3 nm. The saturation magnetization of the thin films by subjected to rapid annealing at 900C for 150 seconds was 400 emu/cm3 and the coercivity of the films was approximately 3000 Oe.

Pb(ZrxTi1-x)O3 (PZT) thin films were prepared on various electrodes. When Ir system materials were used as electrodes, fatigue properties of PZT thin films were improved. Moreover, in the case of the PZT thin film on an Ir/IrO2 electrode, not only fatigue but imprint properties were clearly improved. We could find these improvements were caused by good barrier effect of IrO2 from secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) analysis. By applying these Ir system electrodes, we fabricated stacked capacitors on polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) plugs. In spite of high temperature thermal processing, we found poly-Si plugs were ohmically connected with the bottom electrodes of the capacitors from hysteresis measurements and I-V characteristics, and could greatly expect them for practical use.