| AVS 65th International Symposium & Exhibition | |
| MEMS and NEMS Group | Thursday Sessions |
| Session MN-ThP |
| Session: | MEMS and NEMS Group Poster Session |
| Presenter: | Vaishali Batra, The University of Alabama |
| Authors: | V. Batra, The University of Alabama R. Paul, The University of Alabama S. Kotru, The University of Alabama |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Lanthanum doped lead zirconate titanate (PLZT) is an interesting ferroelectric material which finds applications in optical MEMS & modulators/transducers, and smart sensors. Recent studies revealing the existence of bulk photovoltaic (PV) effect in this material thereby eliminating the need of fabricating a p-n junction, has generated curiosity among research community to explore this material for future energy/photo sensing applications. Various approaches are being explored to improve the PV output obtained from these devices.
In this work, capacitors with two electrode configurations viz. coplanar and interplanar were used to measure electrical properties. The capacitors were fabricated using thin films of Pb0.95La0.05Zr0.54Ti0.46O3 (PLZT) and top and bottom electrodes of conducting materials. A chemical solution deposition method was used to prepare the films. The capacitance-voltage and polarization-voltage measurements demonstrated that the coplanar configuration shows higher capacitance, lower polarization, and higher coercive voltage as compared to the interplanar configuration. Further, the capacitors with coplanar configuration also demonstrated higher PV parameters, such as short circuit current density (Jsc) and open circuit voltage (Voc). As an example, Jsc of 1.86 µA/cm2 and Voc of -1.1 V were obtained using coplanar configuration with Au electrodes for unpoled devices. Poling showed an improvement in PV parameters for both the coplanar and interplanar configurations, with higher values obtained from the coplanar configuration. After poling, Jsc of 1.32 µA/cm2 and Voc of -0.93 V for interplanar configuration, and Jsc of 2.04 µA/cm2 and Voc of -2.01 V for coplanar configuration were obtained. These results suggest that coplanar configuration is better for measuring the PV properties of PLZT thin film based capacitor structures.