Nanoscale investigation of hydrogen-induced degradation mechanism in Pt/(Pb, La)(Zr, Ti)O3/Pt capacitors

The effects of hydrogen on Pt/(Pb, La)(Zr, Ti)O3(PLZT)/Pt capacitors have been investigated using atomic force microscopy piezoelectric measurements. The study revealed that the capacitors consist of submicron-sized ferroelectric domains, which were randomly distributed at positive or negative remanent states. After hydrogen annealing, it was observed that the local piezoelectric hysteresis loops of each domain shifted along both the voltage axis and the polarization axis. The degradation of remanent polarization can be explained by the shifted hysteresis of each domain. The degradation of saturation polarization can be understood to have been caused by the nonswitching portion within the capacitor.