Ferroelectric properties of SrRuO3/BaTiO3/SrRuO3 ultrathin film capacitors free from passive lay

TL;DR

This study demonstrates high-quality ultrathin SrRuO3/BaTiO3/SrRuO3 capacitors with well-defined interfaces that exhibit excellent ferroelectric properties and fatigue endurance, even at minimal BaTiO3 thicknesses.

Contribution

It provides detailed structural analysis showing the absence of passive layers and extrinsic effects in ultrathin ferroelectric capacitors, highlighting their potential for reliable nanoscale devices.

Findings

Well-defined interfaces between BaTiO3 and SrRuO3 layers.

No extrinsic electrical effects observed.

Excellent fatigue endurance at 5 nm BaTiO3 thickness.

Abstract

Structural studies on ultrathin SrRuO3/BaTiO3/SrRuO3 capacitors, with BaTiO3 thicknesses of between 5 nm and 30 nm, show well-defined interfaces between ferroelectric BaTiO3 and electrode SrRuO3 layers. In these capacitors, we cannot observe any extrinsic electrical effects due to either the formation of an insulating interfacial passive layer or passive-layer-induced charge injection. Such high quality interfaces result in very good fatigue endurance, even for the 5 nm thick BaTiO3 capacitor.