材料期刊网

Multilayers consisting of two tetragonal compositions PbZr(0.2)Ti(0.8)O(3) and PbZr(0.4)Ti(0.6)O(3) were deposited onto a SrRuO(3) electrode grown on a vicinal (100) SrTiO(3) substrate. It has been shown by extensive structural investigations comprising transmission electron microscopy in conventional and high resolution mode, reciprocal space mapping and piezoresponse force microscopy that with decreasing layer thickness a transition from a-domains confined to individual layers to a-domains propagating through the whole film takes place. This is caused by the formation of a common strain state of all layers which is responsible for the observed enhancement of the electrical properties. These show a maximum in the product of remanent polarization and dielectric constant at a certain density of interfaces. If the interface density becomes too high the lattice distortion accompanying each interface deteriorates the properties of the multilayer structure.