Abstract
(La,Sr)CoO3/Pb(Zr,Ti)O3/(La,Sr)CoO3 (LSCO) heterostructures have been grown on LaAlO3 substrates by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) to investigate asymmetric polarization switching of Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 (PZT) thin films with different electrode configuration. P-V hysteresis loop of LSCO/PZT/LSCO was symmetric. However, LaCoO3 (LCO)/PZT/LSCO showed a largely asymmetric P-V hysteresis loop and large relaxation of the remanent polarization at the negatively poled state, which means that the negatively poled state was unstable. On the other hand, LSCO/PZT/LCO exhibited large relaxation of the positively poled state. The asymmetric behavior of the polarized states implies the presence of an internal electric field inside the PZT layer. It is suggested that the internal electric field caused by built-in voltages at LCO/PZT and LSCO/PZT interfaces. The built-in voltages at LCO/PZT and LSCO/PZT interfaces were 0.6 eV and 2.1 eV, respectively.