The effect of oxygen-to-argon ratio on the electrical and reliability characteristics of sputtered Sr0.8Bi2.5Ta1.2Nb0.9O9+x thin films

This work investigated how the annealing process affects the ferroelectric properties of thin films of Sr0.8Bi2.5Ta1.2Nb0.9O9+x (SBTN) on Ir/SiO2/Si s ubstrates prepared by two-target off-axis rf magnetron sputtering at variou s O-2/(Ar + O-2) mixing ratios (OMR) with a substrate temperature of 570 de grees C. Experimental results indicated that the annealing could effectivel y result in a large remanent polarization. The remanent polarization, diele ctric constant and leakage current of 598 degrees C post-annealing SBTN thi n films increased with an increase in the OMR and reached a maximum value a t 40% OMR. In addition, the results obtained from the dielectric constant a nd the leakage current were interpreted in terms of polarization effect and loss theory. The 400-nm thick 40% OMR SBTN films with 598 degrees C post-a nnealing exhibited good surface morphology and had a dielectric constant of 752, a loss tangent of 0.035 at 100 kHz, a leakage current density of 6 x 10(-6) A/cm(2) at an electric field of 50 kV/cm with a delay time of 30 s, a remanent polarization (2P(r)) of 40 mu C/cm(2), a coercive field (2E(c)) of 77 kV/cm at an applied voltage of 3 V, and a measured value of Q(sw) of 20 mu C/cm(2). According to studies on the 10-year lifetime of time-depende nt dielectric breakdown (TDDB), high OMR samples have a longer lifetime tha n the other lower OMR samples. The SBTN films demonstrated fatigue free cha racteristics up to 10(11) switching cycles under a 3-V bipolar 1 MHz square wave. Moreover, the polarization of the films decreases slightly (less 0.5 % per decade) with retention time up to 240 min. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.