Leakage Current in Low-Temperature PVD PZT Films

In this work an enhanced physical model for leakage current degradation in lead zirconate titanate thin films is proposed and degradation kinetics are studied experimentally. For the first time, more than two defect species being active and manifesting in leakage current degradation of perovskite oxides are proposed and experimental evidence is presented to undermine the hypotheses. Model predictions and experimental results are found to be in excellent agreement. The proposed characterization method allows for characterization of contributing defect types by associated charge and true activation energy and offers the potential to be be further enhanced. Contributions of defects with true activation energies in the range of 0.5 eV to 1.24 eV and associated charges of 1 to 4 were found. Due to strong similarities in the discussion and experimental data of comparable material types e.g. PMN-PT, BaTiO
₃
, BST, KNN and more, it is believed that the proposed model holds for those material types and has the potential to increase understanding of degradation mechanisms in high-k dielectrics and complex oxides in general.