Lead-free (K,Na)NbO3 Thick Films for Flexible Non-volatile Memory Applications

We report the sol-gel fabrication and electrical characterization of flexible (K,Na)NbO3 (KNN) thick films. Muscovite mica allows the growth of high-quality polycrystalline KNN thick films with flexible functionality. Because of the trade-off between increase of grain-size and volatilization of alkaline ions, the electrical polarization is optimized at certain temperature of 720 °C. The remnant and saturation polarization of flexible KNN films were recorded to Pr = 10.3 μC/cm2 and Ps = 23.3 μC/cm2, respectively, which are quite close to those of rigid films with the same chemical compositions. The KNN thick films are bendable even up to bending radius of R = 3.1 mm, and the Pr and Ps at bending states are almost the same as compared to those at unbending state. Even in the convex and concave bending, the KNN thick films show excellent non-volatile memory characteristics. The Pr is almost thesameevenafter the108 times of switching and the 104 sec of retention.