Effects of Pb content and electrode materials on the ferroelectric properties of Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3 thin films

Abstract We investigated the effects of Pb content and electrode materials on the ferroelectric properties of metal/Pb(Zr 0.52 Ti 0.48 )O 3 /metal thin film capacitors for non-volatile memory device applications. The increase of Pb content resulted in a change from the non-ferroelectric pyrochlore phase to the ferroelectric perovskite phase, and consequently, the enhancement of polarization-voltage hysteresis loops. Non-noble metal/PZT/noble metal asymmetric electrode structures were fabricated by using non-noble metals and a noble metal with different work functions. The asymmetric electrode and the resultant internal field, not only made a shift in the initial hysteresis loops, but also caused continuous degradation of the reliability characteristics of ferroelectric capacitors.