Retention characteristics of Bi3.25La0.75Ti3O12 thin films

Polarization retention characteristics of ferroelectric Bi3.25La0.75Ti3O12 (BLT) thin films, fabricated on Pt/TiO2/SiO2/Si substrates by pulsed laser deposition, have been investigated. The retained polarization showed a power-law-like decay within one second of writing and the normalized retained polarization was well scaled with respect. to the initial polarization regardless of the write/read pulse fields. Thermally accelerated retention failure tests, performed at 120degreesC for 3.6 x 10(5) S, showed that the BLT films had quite good retention characteristics, retaining 85% of the value measured at t = I s. It was also found that there was an accompanying imprint phenomenon during the retention test. However, the retention loss cannot be explained solely by imprint but polarization charge compensation by redistribution of defect charges should also be considered.