Electric fatigue properties of Pb-based ferroelectric and antiferroelectric thin films

Ferroelectric Pb(Zr0.5Ti0.5)O-3 and Pb-0.99[(Zr0.6Sn0.4)(0.85)Ti-0.15](0.98)Nb0.02O3 and antiferroelectric PbZrO3 and Pb-0.99[(Zr0.6Sn0.4)(0.97)Ti-0.03](0.98)Nb0.02O3 thin films were prepared by a sol-gel process. The antiferroelectric thin films showed much less electric fatigue than the ferroelectric thin films. This can be attributed to the fact that the antiferroelectrics have less stress due to 180degrees domain switching compared to the ferroelectrics. The ferroelectric thin films showed different fatigue mechanism. The electrical defects, such as oxygen vacancies, would be the main contributor to the fatigue of the Pb(Zr0.5Ti0.5)O-3 films, while mechanical microcracking would be the main contributor to the fatigue of the Pb-0.99[(Zr0.6Sn0.4)(0.85)Ti-0.15](0.98)Nb0.02O3 films. The schematic fatigue models of these different thin films were proposed to complement the proposed fatigue mechanisms.