Improvement of leakage current characteristics of Ba0.5Sr0.5TiO3 films by N2O plasma surface treatment

The effects of plasma surface treatment, using N2O gas, of Ba0.5Sr0.5TiO3 (BST) film on the leakage current characteristic of a Pt/BST/Pt capacitor were investigated. As a result of exposure of BST film to the plasma, the leakage current density of the BST capacitor decreased by two orders of magnitude in the high voltage region, and higher onset voltage of an abrupt increase in leakage current was observed. The improvement of leakage properties of BST films can be attributed to the elimination of the bulged curve in the leakage current characteristics. Thermal desorption spectroscopy showed that the elimination was closely related to the reduction of carbon content in the BST film. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics.