Switching, fatigue, and retention in ferroelectric Bi4Ti3O12 thin films

Thin films of bismuth titanate, Bi4Ti3O12, prepared by the metalorganic solution deposition technique and rapid thermally annealed at 700 °C for 20 s have shown good ferroelectric switching, fatigue, and retention characteristics. A switching time of 180 ns was measured for a 0.5 μm thick capacitor with an electrode area of 2.83×10−3 cm2. The switching degradation of the polarization state or fatigue was not significant, at least up to 1010 bipolar switching cycles. The films exhibited good memory retention characteristics after about 106 s.