Increased Energy-Storage Density and Superior Electric Field and Thermally Stable Energy Efficiency of Aerosol-Deposited Relaxor (Pb 0.89 La 0.11 )(Zr 0.70 Ti 0.30 )O 3 Films

(Pb 0.89 La 0.11 )(Zr 0.70 Ti 0.30 )O 3 (PLZT 11/70/30) relaxor ferroelectric (RFE) films were fabricated on Pt/Si substrates by aerosol deposition, which not only enabled the deposition of a film at room temperature but also increased the dielectric breakdown strength. Perovskite phase and microstructural analyses were carried out by x-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy techniques. A PLZT 11/70/30 RFE AD film annealed at 550 °C exhibited the best dielectric properties ( ε r ~ 1090, tan δ ~ 0.028) and typical relaxor-type slim polarization–electric field ( P – E ) hysteresis loop with relatively low remanent polarization ( P r ~ 6.81 µC/cm 2 ) and coercive field ( E c ~ 118 kV/cm) even at a high applied electric field (~ 2500 kV/cm). These superior properties were achieved due to high phase purity, low defect densities, and well-tuned grain sizes of an annealed PLZT 11/70/30 RFE AD film. The PLZT 11/70/30 RFE AD film exhibited a high energy-storage density ( W rec ~ 44 J/cm 3 ) which is attributed to the high dielectric breakdown strength, low hysteresis loss ( W loss ~ 10.3 J/cm 3 ), and almost-electric-field-independent efficiency ( η ~ 81%, change of ~ 6% with the change from low to high electric fields), calculated using the unipolar P – E hysteresis loop. The excellent temperature stability of the energy efficiency of the PLZT 11/70/30 RFE AD film makes it a promising material for high-temperature energy-storage capacitor applications.