Low voltage switching of a spin cast ferroelectric polymer

Employing a conductive polymer as the bottom electrode material of a ferroelectric capacitor is shown to improve the ferroelectric properties of sub-100-nm-thick spin cast poly(vinylidene fluoride/trifluoroethylene) copolymer insulator films. It is demonstrated that a remanent polarization of 65 mC/m(2) is switched with only 5.2 V (80 MV/m) with a switching time of 80 ms. Compared to similar capacitors but with an aluminum bottom electrode the main improvement is a reduction of the switching time with 3 orders of magnitude at this field strength. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.