ELECTRICAL AND OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF CHEMICALLY SYNTHESIZED SILVER NANOPARTICLE-EMBEDDED PZT THIN FILMS

ROLDÁN, M. V.; PELLEGRI, N. S.; SANTIAGO, M. L.; STACHIOTTI, M. G.; DI MARCO, M. B.; URTEAGA, R.

Darmstadt

Conferencia; Electroceramics XVII conference; 2020

Technische Universität Darmstadt and European Ceramic Society

The effects produced by the incorporation of silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) on the electrical and optical properties of PbZr0.52Ti0.48O3 (PZT) thin films were investigated. Spherical nanoparticles with average size of ∼4nm were synthesized from the chemical reduction of AgNO3 in ethanol, using PVP as stabilizer. A chemical solution deposition method was used for the synthesis of the films, using acetoin as a chelating agent. Four different NPs configurations were prepared, according to the following scheme: In all cases, uniform and dense films with single-phase perovskite structure were successfully fabricated on Pt substrates. The XRD analysis showed that the incorporation of Ag-NPs in samples 3 and 4 produce an increase of the (001) crystal orientation. We showed that the dielectric properties of the films were not significantly affected by the inclusion of Ag-NPs. All films displayed well-saturated hysteresis loops at 50 Hz. An increase of the ferroelectric response (remnant polarization) was observed in samples 3 and 4, where the Ag- NPs were dispersed in the volume of the film. The analysis of the optical properties obtained by reflectance measurements revealed a band gap Eg ≈ 3.8 eV, and an increase of the extinction coefficient (for wavelengths larger than λ≈350nm) with the increase of Ag-NPs concentration.