c-Axis oriented zinc oxide thin films were prepared by sol-gel process on fused quartz substrates. The structure, optical and electrical properties of ZnO films were investigated. Growth of the thin films strongly depends on heat-treatment conditions. The c-axis lattice constants of the thin films and the band gap are a little bigger than that of ZnO crystal. The differences between the thin film and crystal might be attributable to the grain boundaries and imperfections in thin films.

Epitaxial and oriented K(Tao0.65Nb0.35)O3 thin films were prepared by the sol-gei method, using metalorganic compounds. The thin films were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), and reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED). The mechanism of orientation of the K (Ta0.65Nb0.35) O3 films is discussed.

All-epitaxial (Bi,La) 4Ti3O12 (BLT) /Pb(Zr,Ti) O3(PZT)/(Bi,La) 4Ti3O12 trilayered ferroelectric thin films were prepared on SrRuO3 sSROd-covered SrTiO3s011d substrates by pulsed-laser deposition. Epitaxial relationships were identified to be BLT (118) iPZT (011) iSrTiO3(011), and BLTf1(1)0g iPZTf100g iSrTiO3f100g. Atomic force microscopy observation of the surface showed that the upper BLT layer is composed of rod-like grains. Cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy investigations revealed ferroelectric 90

Bi, La 4Ti3O12(BLT)/Pb (Zr,Ti) O3(PZT)/(Bi,La) 4Ti3O12 trilayered ferroelectric thin films were epitaxially grown by pulsed laser deposition onto (001) SrTiO3 (STO) substrates with and without SrRuO3 (SRO) bottom electrodes. From x-ray pole figures and electron-diffraction patterns, the epitaxial relationships between BLT, PZT, SRO, and STO were identified to be BLT (001) PZT (001) SRO (001) SrTiO3 (001); BLT (110) PZT (100) SRO (100) SrTiO3 (100). Cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy investigations revealed that 90

Ferroelectric (Bi,La) 4Ti3O12 (BLT) thin films with different Bi2O3 template layers were prepared on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si substrates by a chemical-solution deposition method. The BLT films with a thin Bi2O3 bottom layer and those with a thin Bi2O3 intermediate layer had a (117) preferentially oriented growth after annealing at 750°C, while those with a thin Bi2O3 upper layer and those without a Bi2O3 template layer exhibited a high c-axis orientation. The surface morphologies changed with different preferential orientations. The electrical measurements showed that the use of Bi2O3 template layers improved significantly the P–E hysteresis loops of BLT thin films. The remanent polarization (2Pr) and coercive field (Ec) values of BLT films without a Bi2O3 template layer, with a Bi2O3 upper layer, with a Bi2O3 bottom layer, and with a Bi2O3 intermediate layer annealed at 750°C were 10.8, 29.12, 26.17, and 19.67mC/cm2; 79.0, 74.5, 75.5, and 76.3kV/cm, respectively, at an applied electric field of 350 kV/cm. The dielectric constants and dissipation factors were 184, 303, 243, and 217; 0.036, 0.044, 0.039, and 0.039, respectively, at the frequency of 100 kHz, for these BLT films without a Bi2O3 template layer, with a Bi2O3 upper layer, with a Bi2O3 bottom layer, and with a Bi2O3 intermediate layer. All the capacitors with Bi2O3 template layers showed good polarization fatigue characteristics at least up to 331010 bipolar pulse cycles and excellent retention properties up to 33104s.