Fatigue characteristics of PZT thin films deposited by ECR-PECVD

Abstract

Fatigue characteristics of lead zirconate titanate (PZT) films deposited by electron cyclotron resonance plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (ECR-PECVD) were investigated. The fatigue characteristics were investigated with respect to PZT film thickness, domain structure, fatigue pulse height, temperature, electrode materials and electrode configurations. The used top and bottom electrode materials were Pt and $RuO2. In the fatigue characteristics with fatigue pulse height and PZT film thickness, the fatigue rates are independent of the applied fatigue pulse height at the electric field regions to saturate the P-E hysteresis and polarization $(P^*,\;P^A)$ characteristics. The unipolar and bipolar fatigue characteristics of PZT capacitors with four different electrode configurations $(Pt//Pt,\;Pt//RuO_2,\;RuO_2//Pt,\;and\;RuO_2//RuO_2)$ were also investigated. The polarization-shifts during the unipolar fatigue and the temperature dependence of fatigue rate suggest that the migration of charged defects should not be expected in our CVD-PZT films. It seems that the polarization degradations are attributed to the formation of charged defects only at the Pt/PZT interface during the domain switching. The charged defects pin the domain wall at the vicinity of Pt/PZT interface. When the top and bottom electrode configurations are of asymmetric $(Pt//RuO_2,\;RuO_2//Pt)$, the internal fields can be generated by the difference of charged defect densities between top and bottom interfaces.