We have made ferroelectric memory capacitors by depositing a SrBi2Ta2O
9 thin film on a Si substrate separated by an ultrathin buffer layer o
f silicon nitride film. The hysteresis in the capacitance-voltage curv
es suggests a sizable memory window of 2 V with a programming voltage
swing of +/- 7 Y. The switching time is estimated to be on the order o
f nanosecond based on the results of a one-shot pulse experiment. The
results from the fatigue test indicate a slight degradation of the mem
ory window after 10(11) switching cycles. These properties are encoura
ging for the development of ferroelectric memory transistors. (C) 1998
American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(98)00210-1].