Engineering Creativity Award: PLZT Thin Film Electro OPtic Materials for Light Modulation

铅、镧、锆酸盐和钛酸盐在广泛的组成范围内结合在一起，形成了一种被称为PLZT的透明铁电陶瓷。PLZT材料的光学透明性和电光特性使其适用于各种电子设备，并具有竞争技术无法比拟的优势。由于开关所需的操作电压较高，它们尚未大规模商用。本研究所采用的方法是使用PLZT靶材在透明衬底上溅射沉积，同时控制衬底温度、衬底偏压、靶材成分和腔室压力等变量。通过改变这些因素，最终得到一种透明的铁电陶瓷，它具有一定的本征应力、形貌和颗粒结构，最终影响开关电压的阈值。PLZT薄膜将在空间光调制器、图像存储器件、反射式显示器、滤光片和线性门阵列等电光器件中得到应用。

Lead, lanthanum, zirconate, and titanate, in a broad range of compositions, combine to form a transparent ferroelectric ceramic referred to as PLZT. the optical transparency and electrooptic properties of PLZT materials make them useful for a variety of electronic devices and advantageous over competing technologies. They have yet to be used on a large commercial scale due to high operating voltages required for switching. The approach taken in this research is to use a PLZT target to sputter deposit onto a transparent substrate while controlling the variables of substrate temperature, substrate bias, target composition, and chamber pressure. By varying these factors, the end result is a transparent ferroelectric ceramic with certain intrinsic stress, morphology, and grain structure which ultimately affect the threshold of the switching voltage. The PLZT thin films that will result have application in electrooptic devices for spatial light modulators, image storage devices reflective displays, filters, and linear gate arrays.