Avoiding water reservoir effects in ALD of functional complex alkali oxides by using O as the oxygen source.

Toxic Pb-containing piezo-, pyro- and ferroelectrics continue to dominate the market even though they were banned from use in consumer products more than a decade ago. There is a strong need for sustainable alternatives, but the lack of facile synthesis routes for thin films exhibiting suitable functional properties have limited the transition from Pb workhorse materials like Pb(Zr,Ti)O and Pb(Mg,Nb)O - PbTiO. Atomic layer deposition has proven capable of the deposition of possible successors, such as LiNbO, (K,Na)NbO and K(Ta,Nb)O, albeit with limited control due to water reservoir effects resulting from the hygroscopicity of intermediate products.