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Theoretical calculations based on phenomenology of ferroelectrics have been previously reported for lead zirconium titanate (PZT) system. This paper offers an experimental comparison of the crystal orientation dependence of dielectric properties for PZT thin films grown using reactive RF-sputtering. Highly oriented PZT thin films with a rhombohedral composition have been grown in different orientations using selective rapid thermal annealing cycles. The PZT(100) oriented films showed larger dielectric constant and loss compared to PZT(111) films. The PZT(100) films possessed sharp square-like hysteresis loops indicating a instantaneous switching of domains at the coercive field whereas the PZT(111) films showed smooth hysteresis loops as expected from our phenomenological calculations.

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The anomalous photovoltaic effect, i.e., substantial voltage generation exceeding band gap energies, by homogeneous illumination in the non-centrosymmetric materials is a wellknown phenomenon. This mechanism is fundamentally different from those observed in heterojunctions/homojunctions (i.e., solar cells) based on semiconductor materials with a symmetric crystal structure. Recently, light induced strain termed as Photostriction, has been demonstrated in noncentrosymmetric perovskite ferroelectrics as lanthanum-modified lead zirconate titanate (PLZT) ceramics. PLZT ceramics have gained considerable attention due to their large photostrictive responses. When a light is illuminated on a polarized photostrictive bimorph, a large photovoltage of the order of kV/mm is generated across its length in the spontaneous polarization direction which results in strain generation by converse-piezoelectric effect and caused the bimorph to deflect in the direction away from the illumination. The photoactuation has been demonstrated in PLZT ceramic wafers as two different kinds of actuators, (i) photo-driven relay and (ii) photo-driven micro walking machine. These materials are also promising for the photo-acoustic device (e.g., Photophone) of the optical communication system. However, photostriction being a recently observed phenomenon, is far from optimum condition. It is expected that the optimization with respect to materials and microstructural characteristics will lead to a substantial enhancement in the photoactuation efficiency. Increasing the photoactuation efficiency will eliminate the need for electrical energy, and will open up numerous possibilities of contactless actuators. In this paper the influence of composition dependence and impurity doping effects on microstructure and photostrictive responses of PLZT ceramics have been investigated.