Fabrication and Characterization of Bismuth Lanthanum Titanate (Bi3.25La0.75Ti3O12) Thin Films for FeRAM Devices

Thin films of Lanthanum doped Bismuth Titanate (Bi3.25La0.75Ti3O12) (BLT) have been prepared and characterized for their applications in ferroelectric random access memory (FeRAM) devices. The films have been characterized via X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), capacitance-voltage (C-V), ferroelectric (P-E) and current-voltage (J-V) characteristics. The effect of thickness on these characteristics has also been investigated. Thickness variation shows significant effect on the morphology and ferroelectric properties of the films. The nature of the J-V characteristics was observed to be independent of the thickness of the films. Three distinct regions, i.e., ohmic, trap filled limited and Child's law were explicitly observed in J-V characteristics. The J-V behavior of BLT thin films was found to follow the Lampert's theory of space charge limited conduction in an insulator with traps.