Lead Free Ferroelectric Thin Films
Sol gel derived ferroelectric thin films, with lead zirconate titanate (Pb(Zr,Ti)O3, PZT) as one of the most widely studied materials, have been investigated for a wide range of applications, including microelectromechanical systems. The research of environment friendly alternatives to lead based materials, to a large extent driven by legislation, has been mainly conducted in the domain of bulk ceramics; however, environment friendly alternatives to lead based ferroelectric B. Malic K. Vojisavljevic T. Pecnik Electronic Ceramics Department, Jozef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia e mail: Barbara.malic@ijs.si; katarina.vojisavljevic@ijs.si; tanja.pecnik@ijs.si A. Kupec Electronic Ceramics Department, Jozef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Laboratory for Tribology and Interface Nanotechnology, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia e mail: alja.kupec@tint.fs.uni lj.si Springer International Publishing AG 2016 L. Klein et al. (eds. Handbook of Sol Gel Science and Technology, DOI 10.1007/978 3 319 19454 7_19 1 1 thin films have been also studied in recent years. Three most studied groups of lead free materials include materials based on sodium potassium niobate solid solution (K0.5Na0.5NbO3) KNN) bismuth sodium titanate (Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3, BNT) and barium titanate such as barium zirconate titanate barium calcium titanate solid solution (Ba(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O3 (Ba0.7Ca0.3)TiO3, BZT BCT) In the present review, each group is discussed in terms of material properties, sol gel processing, and thin film crystallization, microstructure, and functional properties.