Asymmetric electrical properties in Pt/Ba0.5Sr0.5Ti0.99Co0.01O3/Nb-doped SrTiO3 capacitors

Ba0.5Sr0.5Ti0.99Co0.01O3 (BSTC) thin films have been fabricated with pulsed laser deposition on Nb-doped SrTiO3 (STN) substrate. In Pt/BSTC/STN capacitor, we systematically investigated the capacitance, leakage current and polarization versus bias voltage characteristics, and found that curves of capacitance versus voltage and leakage current versus voltage were not symmetric, and polarization hysteresis loop exhibited large relaxation of the remnant polarization at negatively poled state. A detailed analysis of capacitance data demonstrated a difference of the built-in voltage between top Pt/BSTC interface (V-b,V-t=2.5 V) and bottom BSTC/STN interface (V-b,V-b=1.1 V). Such different built-in voltages lead to the presence of an internal electric field, which results in asymmetric electric characteristics in Pt/BSTC/STN capacitor. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.