Electrical characterization and analysis of the degradation of electrode Schottky barriers in BaTiO3 dielectric materials due to hydrogen exposure

Hydrogen gas creates a highly damaging environment that degrades electrical properties in oxide based dielectrics and piezoelectrics. In this study, the degradation resistivity due to hydrogen gas in a barium titanate X7R dielectric is designed and processed for base metal electrode capacitors. The present paper is devoted to I-V measurements and the loss of resistivity in the electrode Schottky barriers. The DC degradation and asymmetries noted in I-V forward and reverse biasing conditions were assumed to be hydrogen ion interstitials, locally creating donor substitutions. Thermionic and field emission conductivity mechanisms are applied to model the I-V data; the conductivity is controlled by the Schottky barrier heights and hydrogen ions localizing at the interfaces. Finally, a mechanism was proposed for resistivity degradation due to exposure to hydrogen gas. The proposed mechanism predicts the degradation should be reversible, and its validity was examined by recovery tests. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.