A piezoelectric element includes a first and a second electrode, a piezoelectric layer between the first electrode and the second electrode, and an orientation control layer between the first electrode and the piezoelectric layer. The orientation control layer contains perovskite complex oxide containing potassium, sodium, calcium, and niobium and preferentially oriented in the (100) plane.

A thin-film piezoelectric material substrate includes an insulator on Si substrate and a thin-film laminated part. The insulator on Si substrate has a substrate for deposition made of silicon and an insulating layer formed on a surface of the substrate for deposition. The thin-film laminated part is formed on a top surface of the insulating layer. The thin-film laminated part has a YZ seed layer including yttrium and zirconium, and formed on the top surface; a lower electrode film laminated on the YZ seed layer; a piezoelectric material film made of lead zirconate titanate, shown by general formula Pb(Zr.sub.xTi.sub.(1-x))O.sub.3, and formed on the lower electrode film; and an upper electrode film laminated on the piezoelectric material film.

There is provided a ferroelectric thin-film laminated substrate, including a substrate, and further including a lower electrode layer, a ferroelectric thin-film layer, an upper electrode adhesive layer, and an upper electrode layer being sequentially stacked on the substrate, in which: the lower electrode layer is made of platinum or a platinum alloy; the ferroelectric thin-film layer is made of a sodium potassium niobate (typical chemical formula of (K.sub.1-xNa.sub.x)NbO.sub.3, 0.4?x?0.7); the upper electrode layer is made of gold; the upper electrode adhesive layer is made of a metal that has less oxidizability than titanium and can make a solid solution alloy without generating an intermetallic compound with gold; and a part of the upper electrode adhesive layer and a part of the upper electrode layer are alloyed.

Acoustic wave devices and methods of fabricating acoustic wave devices. A device includes a piezoelectric substrate and a conductor pattern formed on a surface of the piezoelectric substrate. The conductor pattern includes an interdigitated transducer (IDT) of a surface acoustic wave (SAW) resonator. The conductor pattern includes a substantially beryllium layer proximate the surface of the piezoelectric substrate.

A method of making a piezoelectric device comprising providing a deposition chamber, the deposition chamber having reduced pressure therein; loading a substrate into the deposition chamber; sputter depositing hexagonal 001 oriented titanium on the substrate; providing an oxygen anneal to convert 001 oriented titanium into 100 oriented rutile TiO.sub.2; sputter depositing a 111 or 100 oriented textured conducting material for use as an electrode; sputter depositing a hexagonal 001 oriented titanium and providing an oxygen anneal in a lead oxide environment to convert 001 oriented titanium into 100 oriented rutile TiO.sub.2 or Pb.sub.xTi.sub.1-xO.sub.3; sputter depositing textured lead zirconate titanate PbZr.sub.xTi.sub.1-xO.sub.3 having an 001 orientation as a piezoelectric layer, and sputter depositing a textured electrode on top of the textured lead zirconate titanate; whereby processing of the layers within the deposition chamber provides minimized exposure to ambient contamination and improved texturing in the resulting films.

A piezoelectric actuator includes a vibration portion, a support portion that is integrally configured with the vibration portion and supports the vibration portion, and a piezoelectric element that is disposed on the vibration portion. The piezoelectric element includes a piezoelectric film including columnar crystal grains extending in a thickness direction. When a thickness of the piezoelectric film is referred to as T [?m] and an average diameter of the crystal grains in the width direction is referred to as D [?m], T/D is within a range of 10 to 100. The thickness T of the piezoelectric film is larger than or equal to 2 ?m. A standard deviation of diameters of the crystal grains in the width direction is less than or equal to 1.8 ?m.

A piezoelectric device includes a substrate, a lower electrode disposed above the substrate, a lower bonding layer disposed on the lower electrode, a piezoelectric layer containing a piezoelectric material disposed on an upper surface of the lower bonding layer, and an upper electrode disposed above the piezoelectric layer. The lower bonding layer includes an electrode material portion containing an electrode material of the lower electrode and a piezoelectric material portion containing a piezoelectric material. The electrode material portion and the piezoelectric material portion interdigitate with each other in the lower bonding layer.

Provided is a piezoelectric thin film containing a tetragonal crystal 1 of a perovskite type oxide and a tetragonal crystal 2 of the oxide. A (001) plane of the tetragonal crystal 1 and a (001) plane of the tetragonal crystal 2 are oriented in a normal direction of a surface of the piezoelectric thin film. An interval of the (001) plane of the crystal 1 is c1. An interval of a (100) plane of the crystal 1 is al. An interval of the (001) plane of the crystal 2 is c2. An interval of a (100) plane of the crystal 2 is a2. c2/a2 is more than c1/a1. A peak intensity of diffracted X-rays of the (001) plane of the crystal 1 is I.sub.1. A peak intensity of diffracted X-rays of the (001) plane of the crystal 2 is I.sub.2. I.sub.2(I.sub.1+I.sub.2) is from 0.50 to 0.90.

This ScAlN laminate includes a substrate, an intermediate layer formed on the substrate and a ScAlN thin film formed on the intermediate layer, and a nearest neighbor distance, which is a distance between atoms closest to each other in a lattice plane parallel to a surface of the intermediate layer, is shorter than the a-axis length of the ScAlN thin film.

Provided is a piezoelectric thin film containing a tetragonal crystal 1 of a perovskite type oxide and a tetragonal crystal 2 of the oxide. A (001) plane of the tetragonal crystal 1 and a (001) plane of the tetragonal crystal 2 are oriented in a normal direction of a surface of the piezoelectric thin film. An interval of the (001) plane of the crystal 1 is c1. An interval of a (100) plane of the crystal 1 is a1. An interval of the (001) plane of the crystal 2 is c2. An interval of a (100) plane of the crystal 2 is a2. c2/a2 is more than c1/a1. A peak intensity of diffracted X-rays of the (001) plane of the crystal 1 is I.sub.1. A peak intensity of diffracted X-rays of the (001) plane of the crystal 2 is I.sub.2. I.sub.2/(I.sub.1+I.sub.2) is from 0.50 to 0.90.