Thermal strain measurement in sol-gel lead zirconate titanate thin films

A fluorescence-based digital image correlation !DIC" technique is used to characterize the in-plane strain development of blanket sol-gel derived lead zirconate titanate thin films deposited on platinized silicon substrates. The in-plane strain is also measured within film line features patterned via a mediated octadecyltrichlorosilane !ODS" monolayer. The results indicate that the selective film failure induced by the mediated ODS layer succeeds in slightly reducing the in-plane strain transverse to the line feature direction !#25% lower", while remaining nearly the same as the blanket film case in the direction parallel to the line direction. Additional in-plane stress estimates from wafer curvature measurements for the two film configurations !blanket and ODS patterned" were consistent with the DIC measured strain results. © 2009 American Institute of Physics. $doi:10.1063/1.3251420%