Patterning and switching of nanosize ferroelectric memory cells

A fundamental limitation on the recent development of nonvolatile ferroelectric memories in 64 Mbit-4 Gbit densities has been the ability to scale ferroelectric capacitor cell sizes below 1 mu m(2). In the present work, ferroelectric memory cells with lateral sizes down to 100 nm were fabricated by electron-beam direct writing. Switching of single 100 nm cells was achieved and piezoelectric hysteresis loops were recorded using a scanning probe microscope working in piezoresponse mode. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(99)04038-3].