Gas release in the process of thermal treatment of sputtered Pb(Ti$_{0.48}$Zr$_{0.52}$)O$_{x}$ films

The conditions (regimes of deposition and thermal treatment) for gas bubble formation in ferroelectric Pb(Ti$_{1-y}$Zr$_{y}$)O$_{3}$ films have been determined by thermal desorption and electron and optical micros-copy. A mechanism of bubble formation has been proposed. This mechanism rests upon the notion that lead can form oxides of the PbO$_2$ type with a high oxygen content at relatively low temperatures and that these oxides break down with the release of oxygen to lower oxides of the PbO type upon subsequent heating. These ideas have been taken as the basis of a technique for the fabrication of Pb(Ti$_{1-y}$Zr$_{y}$)O$_{3}$ films with a reduced (by an order of magnitude) density of through defects.