SYNTHESIS AND ANALYSIS OF LEAD TITANATE NANO-ISLANDS

This paper describes efforts to synthesize lead titanate nano-islands via a solid-phase reaction. Lead and titanium thin films, deposited on a SiO2/Si substrate, reacted to form perovskite lead titanate when annealed between 600-700°C under an air atmosphere. By controlling evaporation times discontinuous lead thin films and finally discrete lead nano-islands, with an average diameter between 5-30 nm, were produced. By reducing the annealing temperature to 300°C nano-island morphology was retained throughout the synthesis. Lead titanate formation was verified via piezoresponse force microscopy of individual nano-islands. The effective d33 value of a single lead titanate nano-island, calculated from a butterfly strain loop, was found to be approximately 300 pm/V.