Abstract
Uniaxial Pb5Ge3O11 thin films were successfully fabricated by the sol‐gel processing route. Crack‐free and c‐axis oriented thin films (1600 Å) were observed on (111) Pt‐coated Si substrates when heat treated at 450 °C for 15 min. The thin films exhibited well saturated PE hysteresis loops with Pr=3.3 μC/cm2, Ps=3.7 μC/cm2, and Ec=135 kV/cm. Specifically, a 1600 Å film switched at 2.2 V. The possible applications such as nonvolatile ferroelectric memories and CCD IR image sensors without fatigue or retention problems, are discussed.