Fatigue behavior of heterostructured Pb(Zr, Ti)O3/(Bi, Nd) 4Ti3O12 ferroelectric thin films

Abstract

Heterolayered Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3/(Bi 3.15Nd0.85)Ti3O12 (PZT/BNT) thin films were synthesized via a route of combining sol-gel and rf sputtering. A fatigue anomaly is observed for the heterolayered PZT/BNT thin films, where a switchable polarization peak, which is more than five times higher than that of the virgin state, occurs upon polarization switching for 108-10 9 cycles. Interestingly it shifts towards smaller numbers of switching cycles at elevated temperatures. Both the aging and dielectric behavior suggest that the fatigue anomaly is related to the defects accumulated at the interfaces in the heterolayers. © 2006 American Institute of Physics.