A model for retention on short, intermediate and long time-scale in ferroelectric thin films

TL;DR

This paper introduces a parameter-free model for ferroelectric thin-film retention loss across various time scales, accurately matching experimental data and explaining observed fitting behaviors and temperature/thickness effects.

Contribution

It presents a novel, parameter-free theoretical model that predicts retention loss in ferroelectric thin films over short and long time scales, aligning well with experimental results.

Findings

Power-law fits better on short time scales.

Stretched exponential fits better on long time scales.

Higher temperatures and thinner films increase retention loss.

Abstract

We developed a model with no adjustable parameter for retention loss at short and long time scale in ferroelectric thin-film capacitors. We found that the predictions of this model are in good agreement with the experimental observations in the literature. In particular, it explains why a power-law function shows better fitting than a linear-log relation on a short time scale (10^-7 s to 1 s) and why a stretched exponential relation gives more precise description than a linear-log plot on a long time scale (>100 s), as reported by many researchers in the past. More severe retention losses at higher temperatures and in thinner films have also been correctly predicted by the present theory.