MetalFerroelectricMetal heterostructures with Schottky contacts I. Influence of the ferro.pdfVIP

Metal-Ferroelectric-Metal heterostructures with Schottky contacts I. Influence of the ferroelectric properties L. Pintiliea NIMP, P.O. Box MG-7, 077125 Bucharest-Magurele, Romania and Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics, Weinberg 2, 06120 Halle, Germany M. Alexe Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics, Weinberg 2, 06120 Halle, Germany Abstract A model for Metal-Ferroelectric-Metal structures with Schottky contacts is proposed. The model adapts the general theories of metal-semiconductor rectifying contacts for the particular case of metal-ferroelectric contact by introducing: the ferroelectric polarization as a sheet of surface charge located at a finite distance from the electrode interface; a deep trapping level of high concentration; the static and dynamic values of the dielectric constant. Consequences of the proposed model on relevant quantities of the Schottky contact such as built-in voltage, charge density and depletion width, as well as on the interpretation of the current-voltage and capacitance-voltage characteristics are discussed in detail. PACS no: 77; 73.40.Sx; 77.84.Dy Introduction In the last years ferroelectric thin films, especially with perovskite structure, have attracted much interest due to their application in various microelectronic devices such as non-volatile memory cells.1,2 For most of these applications an important factor to be addressed is the leakage current due to the presumed link between the free carriers and some detrimental phenomena in ferroelectrics such as fatigue or imprint. Several models and transport mechanism