Metal-ferroelectric-insulator-silicon(MFIS) capacitors with Bi3.15Nd0.85Ti3O12(BNT) ferroelectric thin film were simulated using a commercial software Silvaco/Atlas,and the effects of applied voltage and insulator layer on capacitance-voltage(C-V) hysteresis loops and memory windows were investigated. For the MFIS capacitors with CeO2 insulator,with the increase of applied voltage from 2 V to 15 V,the C-V loops become wider and memory windows increase from 0.15 V to 1.27 V. When the thickness of CeO2 layer increases from 1 nm to 5 nm at the applied voltage of 5 V,the C-V loops become narrower and the memory windows decrease from 1.09 V to 0.36 V. For MFIS capacitors with different insulator layers(CeO2,HfO2,Y2O3,Si3N4 and SiO2),the high dielectric constants can make the C-V loops wider and improve the capacitor's memory window. The simulation results prove that Silvaco/Atlas is a powerful simulator for MFIS capacitor,and they are helpful to the fabrication of MFIS nonvolatile memory devices.
Europium-substituted bismuth titanate (Bi3.25Eu0.75Ti3O12) thin films were deposited on the Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si(111) substrates by metal-organic decomposition (MOD) method using a repeated coating/drying cycle. Effect of crystallization temperature on microstructure of Bi3.25Eu0.75Ti3O12(BET) thin films was investigated by X-ray diffractometry(XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Raman spectroscopy, and ferroelectric property was studied by Precision Workstation Ferroelectric Tester. The crystallinity of BET thin films is improved and the average grain size increases with the crystallization temperature from 600 to 750 ℃. Under 9 V applied voltage, the remnant polarization (2Pr) of BET thin films annealed at 700 ℃ is 50.7 μm/cm2, which is higher than that of the films annealed at 600, 650 and 750℃.
Based on the time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau(TDGL) equation,the temporal evolution of the domain structure and hysteresis loops of polarization versus electric field were simulated by a phase-field model for Bi4Ti3O12(BIT) ferroelectric single crystal under an applied electric field. In the static electric energy induced by an applied alternating electric field,the effects of field frequency on the ferroelectric properties of BIT ferroelectrics were investigated. The results show that the evolution of ferroelectric domain structure is a gradual process including domain nucleation,domain wall motion,domain growth and domain combination. In the boundary regions of ferroelectric domain,the new domain nucleations occur and the old domains disappear. The coercive field increases with the field frequency,and it is in good agreement with the previous experiment.
A Landau-Ginsburg-Devonshire(LD)-type thermodynamic theory was used to describe the effect of external stress on phase diagrams and dielectric properties of epitaxial ferroelectric thin films grown on orthorhombic substrates which induce nonequally biaxial misfit strains in the films plane. The “misfit strain-external stress” and “external stress-temperature” phase diagrams were constructed for single-domain BaTiO3(BT) and PbTiO3(PT) thin films. It is shown that the external stress may lead to the rotation of the spontaneous polarization and a gradual change of its magnitude, which may result in phase transition. Nonequally biaxial misfit strains dependence of the stability of polarization states may be governed by external stress. At room temperature, stress-induced ferroelectric/paraelectric phase transition which occurs in film on cubic substrate does not take place in the ferroelectric thin film grown on orthorhombic substrate. It is also shown that the nonequally misfit strains in the film plane may lead to the appearance of new phases which do not form in films grown on cubic substrates under external stress. The dependence of the dielectric response on the external stress is also studied. It is shown that the dielectric constants of single-domain PT and BT films are very sensitive to the external stress under the given anisotropic misfit strains-temperature conditions. It presents theoretical evidence that the external stress and anisotropic misfit strains can be employed for improving the thin films physical properties.
