Realizing intrinsic piezoresponse in epitaxial submicron lead zirconate titanate capacitors on Si

The measurement of out-of-plane piezoelectric response of submicron capacitors fabricated from epitaxial lead zirconate titanate thin films, using piezoresponse scanning force microscopy was reported. It was found that there was a good agreement between the experimentally measured values of d33 for clamped and submicron capacitors and the predictions from thermodynamic theory. The results showed that for submicron capacitors in compositions closer to morphotropic boundary, the field-dependent piezoresponse was different from that predicted by the theoritical calculations.