Effect of crystallinity on thermal transport in textured lead zirconate titanate thin films

We demonstrate the use of the time domain thermoreflectance (TDTR) technique towards understanding thermal transport in textured Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 (PZT) thin films grown by a sol-gel process on platinized silicon substrates. PZT films were grown with preferred crystallographic orientations of (100), (110), and (111). Grain orientation was controlled by manipulating the heterogeneous nucleation and growth characteristics at the interface between the film and the underlying Pt layer on the substrate. TDTR was used to measure both the PZT film thermal conductivity and the interface thermal conductance between the PZT and Pt as well as that between the PZT and an Al thermoreflectance layer evaporated on the PZT surface. We find a hierarchical dependence of thermal conductivity on the crystallographic orientation of the PZT films and observed differences in the thermal conductances between the Al-PZT and PZT-Pt interfaces for a varying degree of preferred orientations (100), (110), and (111). Thus, the technique based upon nanoscale thermal measurements can be used to delineate PZT samples with different crystallographic orientations. The thermal conductivities of the PZT films with different crystal orientations were in the range of 1.45-1.80 W m(-1) K(-1). The interface thermal conductance between the PZT and Pt layer was in the range of 30-65 MW m(-2) K(-1), while the conductance between the Al layer and PZT was in the range of 90-120 MW m(-2) K(-1). These interfacial conductances exhibit significant correlations to the texture of the PZT film and elemental concentration and densities at those interfaces.