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Structural visualization of polarization fatigue in epitaxial ferroelectric oxide devices

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Abstract

Ferroelectric oxides, such as Pb(Zr,Ti)O3, are useful for electronic and photonic devices because of their ability to retain two stable polarization states, which can form the basis for memory and logic circuitry1. Requirements for long-term operation of practical devices such as non-volatile RAM (random access memory) include consistent polarization switching over many (more than 1012) cycles of the applied electric field, which represents a major challenge2. As switching is largely controlled by the motion and pinning of domain walls, it is necessary to develop suitable tools that can directly probe the ferroelectric domain structures in operating devices—thin-film structures with electrical contacts. A recently developed synchrotron X-ray microdiffraction technique complements existing microscopic probes, and allows us to visualize directly the evolution of polarization domains in ferroelectric devices, through metal or oxide electrodes, and with submicrometre spatial resolution. The images reveal two regimes of fatigue, depending on the magnitude of the electric field pulses driving the device: a low-field regime in which fatigue can be reversed with higher electric field pulses, and a regime at very high electric fields in which there is a non-reversible crystallographic relaxation of the epitaxial ferroelectric film.

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Figure 1: Polarization switching in a PZT thin-film capacitor.
Figure 2: Polarization fatigue.
Figure 3: Low-field fatigue.
Figure 4: High-field fatigue.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation through the University of Wisconsin Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (grant number DMR-0079983) and grant no. DMR-0313764 (C.B.E.). Use of the Advanced Photon Source was supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences (contract number W-31-109-Eng-38). E.D. acknowledges support from the US Department of Energy (grant numbers DE-FG02-03ER46023 and DE-FG02-00ER15031), and from the NSF FOCUS physics frontier centre.

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  1. Eric D. Isaacs

    Present address: Center for Nanoscale Materials, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois, 60439, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 53706, Wisconsin, USA

    Dal-Hyun Do, Paul G. Evans, Dong Min Kim & Chang Beom Eom

  2. Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies, Murray Hill, 07974, New Jersey, USA

    Eric D. Isaacs

  3. Department of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 48109, Michigan, USA

    Eric M. Dufresne

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  1. Dal-Hyun Do
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  2. Paul G. Evans
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  3. Eric D. Isaacs
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  4. Dong Min Kim
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Correspondence to Paul G. Evans.

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Do, DH., Evans, P., Isaacs, E. et al. Structural visualization of polarization fatigue in epitaxial ferroelectric oxide devices. Nature Mater 3, 365–369 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat1122

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