Switching properties of SrRuO₃/Pb(Zr_0.4Ti_0.6)O₃/SrRuO₃ capacitor grown on Cu-coated Si substrate measured at various temperatures

¹ Hebei Provincial Key Lab of Optoelectronic Information Materials, and College of Physics Science & Technology, Hebei University - Hebei 071002, China
² Department of Physics Center for Optoelectronic Materials and Key Laboratory of ATMMT Ministry of Education, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University - Hangzhou 310018, China
³ Department of Physics, Blinn College - Bryan, TX 77805, USA

^(a) btliu@hbu.cn
^(b) crli@zstu.edu.cn

Received: 9 June 2014
Accepted: 27 August 2014

Abstract

SrRuO₃(SRO)/Ni-Al/Cu/Ni-Al/SiO₂/Si heterostructures annealed at various temperatures are found to remain intact after annealing. Moreover, a SRO/Pb(Zr_0.4Ti_0.6)O₃ (PZT)/SRO capacitor is grown on a Ni-Al/Cu/Ni-Al/SiO₂/Si heterostructure, which is tested up to to investigate the reliability of the memory capacitor. It is found that besides the good fatigue resistance and retention characteristic, the capacitor, measured at 5 V and room temperature, possesses a large remnant polarization of and a small coercive voltage of 0.83 V, respectively. Its dominant leakage current behavior satisfies the space-charge–limited conduction at various temperatures. Very clear interfaces can be observed from the cross-sectional images of transmission electron microscopy, indicating that the Ni-Al film can be used as a diffusion barrier layer for copper metallization as well as a conducting barrier layer between copper and oxide layer.