Journal of Materials Processing Technology 168/2(2005) 273–279

Thick films fabricated by laser ablation of PZT microparticles

Gokul Malyavanatham,^a Daniel T. O'Brien,^b Michael F. Becker,^a,b William T. Nichols,^c John W. Keto,^a,c Desiderio Kovar^a,d, Sebastien Euphrasie,^e Thomas Loué^e and Philippe Pernod^e

^a Texas Materials Institute, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712,USA
^b Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA
^c Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA
^d Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA
^e IEMN-DOAE UMR CNRS 8520, Ecole Centrale de Lille, B.P.48, 59651 Villeneuve d’Ascq Cédex, France

Abstract

The laser ablation of microparticles (LAM) process was used on PZT powders to produce nanoparticles that were then supersonically impacted onto substrates.  The resulting films were found to be dense and adherent but were primarily amorphous.  SEM and TEM observations showed that, unlike other materials that have been produced by the LAM process, the average compositions of these films differed substantially from the starting powders.  Preliminary attempts to crystallize these films showed that some perovskite PZT could be formed by annealing the films at high temperature.  However, large-scale composition variations present in the films inhibited crystallization at lower temperatures.  The origin of these composition variations and their influence on crystallization are discussed.
©2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.