New Insight into Defects and Degradation Kinetics in Lead Zirconate Titanate

Leakage current degradation in a state-of-the-art integrated low-temperature PVD lead zirconate titanate (PZT) thin film stack is investigated over temperature and applied electric field for samples processed at three different conditions. It is demonstrated that degradation kinetics can be influenced by process conditions. Evaluation of the results provide new insight into the underlying physics and allow for further characterization of involved defects. It is proposed to interpret the change in degradation kinetics as modification of the mean hopping distance within the material. This allows to deduce the effective overlap integral of involved hopping states and marks another step towards understanding of defects in ferroelectric oxides.