Influence of fatigue processes on the switching currents in lead titanate and lead zirconate-titanate films

The processes of polarization fatigue in PbTiO3 and Pb(Zr0.5Ti0.5)O3 films on silicon substrates have been studied by the method of switching in rectangular pulsed fields. Dependences of the switchable polarization, the maximum switching current imax, and the switching time τs on the number of switching cycles have been obtained from the data on the switching currents. It has been shown that the mobility of domain walls is retained in the fatigue processes and the observed fatigue is connected with switching off a fraction of the switchable volume due to pinning of reverse domain nuclei by charged defects.