Preparation and electrical properties of high quality PZT thin films on RuO_x electrode

Abstract

It has been known that ferroelectric PZT thin films on RuO_x electrode exhibit relatively high leakage current level, while they show an outstanding fatigue property. When the PZT thin film is fabricated by sol-gel process over the RuO_x layer, the rosette structures are generally included on the surface of PZT film, which indicates that RuO_x layer does not offer an favorable environment for the nucleation of perovskite phase. A novel process completely eliminating the rosette structures on the surface of PZT film was accomplished in this work, with depositing thin seed PZT layer at the PZT/RuO_x interface by rapid thermal process (RTP). It was found that the obtained PZT films present very low leakage current level compared to the ordinary PZT/RuO_x films with rosette structures. The main route of current leakage in PZT capacitor was also discussed.