Polarization reversal kinetics of a lead zirconate titanate thin-film capacitor for nonvolatile memory

The switching kinetics of polarization reversal using lead zirconate titanate (PZT) thin-film capacitors for nonvolatile memories has been analyzed in terms of the Ishibashi model. A practical 16 kbit PZT memory was used in this work. The polarization reversal ratio agrees well with the theoretical model of the first order dimensional domain growth. The domain growth proceeds outwardly with one-dimensional movement, and domain reversal occurs with existing nuclei and is completed before any other significant nucleation takes place. The characteristic domain growth time t0 is 3 ns. This reveals that the domain switching is substantially fast, and therefore it does not affect the read-out operation of the ferroelectric memories.