Chemical processing and properties of functional ceramics

Functional ceramic films have been receiving great attention because of their potentials for emerging applications, which include integrated sensors, actuators and other devices responding to magnetic, electric, optic and stress fields. Many methods, such as liquid phase epitaxial growth, chemical vapor deposition, molecular beam epitaxial growth, sputtering, laser ablation and chemical solution deposition, have been developed to fabricate thin films with desired properties. Among these methods, the chemical solution deposition method has the advantages of good homogeneity, ease of compositional control, low temperature processing, and large area and versatile shaping with integrated functionalities over vacuum deposition techniques. This paper reviews a part of the authors' results on the chemical processing of some epitaxial ferroelectric, pyroelectric, and piezoelectric films as well as nonlinear optic films. In addition, the processing and properties of nano-sized functional ceramic particles/organic hybrids is presented as an example of novel and promising materials, which are expected to create a emerging area.