Composition profiling of piezoelectric PZT thin films deposited onto Cu coated polymer substrates

In this work, we investigate the composition profile of nanocrystalline Pb(Zr, Ti)O
₃
(PZT) thin films deposited by means of reactive magnetron sputtering from 200 mm diameter metallic targets (Pb, Ti, Zr). High-power pulse sputtering has been employed for alternatively the Zr- or Ti-target. Composition analysis and profiling was performed by means of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Rutherford backscattering (RBS). RBS data was recalibrated to exclude hydrogen content not determined by XPS. Advantages and drawbacks of both methods for PZT composition profiling are discussed.