Strain-Induced Electrical Properties of Lead Zirconate Titanate Thin Films on a Si wafer with Controlled Oxide Electrode Structure

This paper shows the electrical properties of ferroelectric thin films with large compressive residual stress. In this study, the large compressive strain was applied to lead zirconate titanate (PZT) thin films by designing the bottom electrode structure on a Si wafer. The materials selected for the bottom electrode were lanthanum nickel oxide (LNO) and lanthanum strontium cobalt oxide [LSCO; (La_0.5Sr_0.5)CoO₃] from the viewpoint of thermal expansion coefficients. As a result, the PZT thin films with morphotropic phase boundary (MPB) composition received compressive residual stress up to approximately 0.8 GPa from the bottom electrode even on a Si wafer. The compressive residual stress concomitantly increased with increasing LSCO layer thickness. In addition, the remanent polarization of the PZT thin films increased with increasing compressive residual stress.