Applications to photoconductor-ferroelectric memory of PZT thin films

Zr-rich PZT films have been successfully grown on both PLT/Pt/Ti/SiO₂/Si and Ir/SiO₂/Si substrates by RF magnetron sputtering using multi metal targets. A photoconductor-ferroelectric memory (PFM) is proposed in this paper. The basic principle of the PFM is to form a two layers integration structure of ferroelectric film and a-Si:H film. This PFM device with the structure of ITO/a-Si:H/PZT/Ir/SiO₂/Si has been prepared by the RF magnetron sputtering method. The photoconductive effect of a-Si:H under the focused laser beam is used for addressing. The remanent polarization directions of the PZT ferroelectric layer are used for "1" or "0" states of memory. The pyroelectric current directions are used for read-out. The hysteresis loop of the single cell was observed and the pyroelectric current and its direction was read-out by lamp illumination. Thus, the write and readout characteristics of the PFM have been demonstrated