Switching-induced charge injection inducing fatigue in lead zirconate titanium thin films

The dependence of the fatigue behavior on driving electric fields and measurement frequencies of Pb(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O3 thin films with a PbOx buffer layer were systematically investigated. Its fatigue endurance degraded with increasing driving electric fields at a fixed frequency of 50 kHz and decreasing frequencies at a fixed electric field of ∼259 kV/cm. The dielectric constant as a function of switching cycles, which is in agreement with the polarization fatigue, confirms that the local phase decomposition caused by the switching-induced charge injection largely dominates the fatigue behavior in Pb(Zr0.20Ti0.80)O3, together with the domain-wall pinning by the point defect agglomeration.