Preparation and electrical properties of high quality PZT thin films on RuOx electrode

It has been known that ferroelectric PZT thin films on RuOx electrode exhibit relatively high leakage current level, while they show an outstanding fatigue property. When the PZT thin film is fabricated by sol-gel process over the RuOx layer, the rosette structures are generally included on the surface of PZT film, which indicates that RuOx layer does not offer an favorable environment for the nucleation of perovskite phase. A novel process completely eliminating the rosette structures on the surface of PZT film was accomplished in this work, with depositing thin seed PZT layer at the PZT/RuOx interface by rapid thermal process (RTP). It was found that the obtained PZT films present very low leakage current level compared to the ordinary PZT/RuOx films with rosette structures. The main route of current leakage in PZT capacitor was also discussed.