Degradation of Ferroelectric Properties of Pt/PZT/Pt Capacitors in Hydrogen-containing Environment

Abstract

The ferroelectric properties of the capacitors are severely degraded when they are annealed in hydrogen-containing environment. Hydrogen atoms created by the catalytic reaction of Pt top electrode during annealing in hydrogen ambient penetrate into PZT films and generate oxygen vacancies by the reduction of the PZT films, which is likely to cause the degradation. The degree of hydrogen-induced degradation and the direction of voltage shift in P-E curves of the pre-poled PZT capacitors after annealing in hydrogen ambient is dependent on the polarity of the pre-poling voltage. This implies that oxygen vacancies causing hydrogen induced degradation are generated by hydrogen ions having a polarity. The degraded ferroelectricity of the PZT capacitors can be effectively recovered by the shift of oxygen vacancies toward the Pt top electrode interface during post-annealing in oxygen environment with applying negative unipolar stressing.