Electric fatigue in Pb(Nb,Zr,Sn,Ti)O3 thin films grown by a sol-gel process

Antiferroelectric Pb(Nb,Zr,Sn,Ti)O-3 (PNZST) thin films were deposited via a sol-gel process on LaNiO3-buffered Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si substrates. The highly (100)-oriented LaNiO3 buffer layer facilitated the formation of high-quality PNZST films with a strong (100) preferred orientation. These films showed improved electric fatigue properties than those grown on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si substrates. With increasing cycling field, the remanent polarization increases but the saturated polarization decreases. Fatigue properties of PNZST antiferroelectric thin films might be closely related to the nonuniform strain buildup due to switching that tends to stabilize the ferroelectric phase. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.