Characteristics of ferroelectric Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 thin films having Pt/PtOx electrode barriers

We have investigated the feasibility of the Pt/PtOx multilayer as an electrode barrier for Pb(Zr,Ti)O-3 (PZT)-based ferroelectric random access memories. PtOx and Pt layers were prepared on polycrystalline-Si/SiO2/Si substrates by means of the sputtering method in Ar and O-2 ambience, and the Pb(Zr0.53Ti0.47)O-3 layer was prepared by the sol-gel method. A capacitor consisting of Pt/PtOx/PZT/PtOx/Pt/PtOx/poly-Si had a remanent polarization of 18 muC/cm(2) and a low coercive field of 32 kV/cm. The polarization fatigue behavior of test capacitors was improved as compared with that of Pt/PZT/Pt, which showed negligible fatigue loss of 15% after 10(11) switching repetitions with a frequency of 1 MHz. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.