Switching, fatigue, and retention in ferroelectric Bi₄Ti₃O₁₂ thin films

Abstract

Thin films of bismuth titanate, Bi₄Ti₃O₁₂, prepared by the metalorganic solution deposition technique and rapid thermally annealed at 700° C for 20 s have shown good ferroelectric switching, fatigue, and retention characteristics. A switching time of 180 ns was measured for a 0.5 µm thick capacitor with an electrode area of 2.83× 10^-3 cm². The switching degradation of the polarization state or fatigue was not significant, at least up to 10¹⁰ bipolar switching cycles. The films exhibited good memory retention characteristics after about 10⁶ s.