• Transactions of the Society of Information Storage Systems
• /
• v.3 no.2
• /
• pp.94-112
• /
• 2007

Nano-sized inverted domain dots in ferroelectric materials have potential application in ultrahigh-density rewritable data storage systems. Herein, a data storage system is presented based on scanning non-linear dielectric microscopy and a thin film of ferroelectric single-crystal lithium tantalite. Through domain engineering, we succeeded to form an smallest artificial nano-domain single dot of 5.1 nm in diameter and artificial nano-domain dot-array with a memory density of 10.1 Tbit/$inch^2$ and a bit spacing of 8.0 nm, representing the highest memory density for rewritable data storage reported to date. Sub-nanosecond (500psec) domain switching speed also has been achieved. Next, long term retention characteristic of data with inverted domain dots is investigated by conducting heat treatment test. Obtained life time of inverted dot with the radius of 50nm was 16.9 years at $80^{\circ}C$. Finally, actual information storage with low bit error and high memory density was performed. A bit error ratio of less than $1\times10^{-4}$ was achieved at an areal density of 258 Gbit/inch2. Moreover, actual information storage is demonstrated at a density of 1 Tbit/$inch^2$.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
• /
• v.40 no.11
• /
• pp.1047-1057
• /
• 2003

A sub-nanometer resolution Scanning Nonlinear Dielectric Microscope (SNDM) was developed for observing ferroelectric polarization. We also demonstrate that the resolution of SNDM is higher than that of a conventional piezo-response imaging. Secondly, we report new SNDM technique detecting higher nonlinear dielectric constants $\varepsilon$$\_$3333/ and $\varepsilon$$\_$33333/. Higher order nonlinear dielectric imaging provides higher lateral and depth resolution. Finally, the formation of artificial small inverted domain is reported to demonstrate that SNDM system is very useful as a nano-domain engineering tool. The nano-size domain dots were successfully formed in LiTaO$_3$ single crystal. This means that we can obtain a very high density ferroelectric data storage with the density above 1T-bits/inch$^2$.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
• /
• v.14 no.4
• /
• pp.151-154
• /
• 2004

Issues of ferroelectric high-density memories (>64 Mb) indispensable for upcoming ubiquitous era have been on the cell integration less than $0.1\;\mu\textrm{m}^2$ and reliabilities. Thus nanoscale control of microstructures of ferroelectric films with large switching polarization has been one of the issues to obtain the uniform electrical properties for realization of high-density memories. In this study the grain orientations and distributions of BT-based films by spin-on coatings were examined by FEG-SEM/EBSD. Ferroelectric domain characteristics by PFM were also performed to study the dependence of reliabilities on the grain orientations and distributions. It is believed that understandings of the nucleation and growth mechanisms of the a- or b-axis oriented films during the thermal processes such as RTA and furnace annealing affecting on grain orientation and uniformity could be possible based on our experimental results.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
• /
• v.53 no.3
• /
• pp.312-316
• /
• 2016

The energetics of defects in the presence of domain walls in $LiNbO_3$ are characterized using density-functional theory calculations. Domain walls show stronger interactions with antisite defects than with interstitial defects or vacancies. As a result, antisite defects act as a strong pinning center for the domain wall in $LiNbO_3$. Analysis of migration behavior of the antisite defects across the domain wall shows that the migration barrier of the antisite defects is significantly high, such that the migration of antisite defects across the domain wall is energetically not preferable. However, further study on excess electrons shows that the migration barrier of antisite defects can be lowered by changing the charge states of the antisite defects. So, excess electrons can enhance the migration of antisite defects and thus facilitate domain wall movement by weakening the pinning effect.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2013.08a
• /
• pp.99-99
• /
• 2013

In this talk, I will present two research works in progress, which are: i) mapping of piezoelectric polarization and associated charge density distribution in the heteroepitaxial InGaN/GaN multi-quantum well (MQW) structure of a light emitting diode (LED) by using inline electron holography and ii) in-situ observation of the polarization switching process of an ferroelectric Pb(Zr1-x,Tix)O3 (PZT) thin film capacitor under an applied electric field in transmission electron microscope (TEM). In the first part, I will show that strain as well as total charge density distributions can be mapped quantitatively across all the functional layers constituting a LED, including n-type GaN, InGaN/GaN MQWs, and p-type GaN with sub-nm spatial resolution (~0.8 nm) by using inline electron holography. The experimentally obtained strain maps were verified by comparison with finite element method simulations and confirmed that not only InGaN QWs (2.5 nm in thickness) but also GaN QBs (10 nm in thickness) in the MQW structure are strained complementary to accommodate the lattice misfit strain. Because of this complementary strain of GaN QBs, the strain gradient and also (piezoelectric) polarization gradient across the MQW changes more steeply than expected, resulting in more polarization charge density at the MQW interfaces than the typically expected value from the spontaneous polarization mismatch alone. By quantitative and comparative analysis of the total charge density map with the polarization charge map, we can clarify what extent of the polarization charges are compensated by the electrons supplied from the n-doped GaN QBs. Comparison with the simulated energy band diagrams with various screening parameters show that only 60% of the net polarization charges are compensated by the electrons from the GaN QBs, which results in the internal field of ~2.0 MV cm-1 across each pair of GaN/InGaN of the MQW structure. In the second part of my talk, I will present in-situ observations of the polarization switching process of a planar Ni/PZT/SrRuO3 capacitor using TEM. We observed the preferential, but asymmetric, nucleation and forward growth of switched c-domains at the PZT/electrode interfaces arising from the built-in electric field beneath each interface. The subsequent sideways growth was inhibited by the depolarization field due to the imperfect charge compensation at the counter electrode and preexisting a-domain walls, leading to asymmetric switching. It was found that the preexisting a-domains split into fine a- and c-domains constituting a $90^{\circ}$ stripe domain pattern during the $180^{\circ}$ polarization switching process, revealing that these domains also actively participated in the out-of-plane polarization switching. The real-time observations uncovered the origin of the switching asymmetry and further clarified the importance of charged domain walls and the interfaces with electrodes in the ferroelectric switching processes.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
• /
• v.3 no.3
• /
• pp.132-138
• /
• 2003

We investigated the polarization retention characteristics of ferroelectric capacitors with $Pb(Zr,Ti)O_3$ (PZT) thin films which were fabricated by different deposition methods. In thermally-accelerated retention tests, PZT films which were prepared by a chemical solution deposition (CSD) method showed rapid decay of retained polarization charges as the thickness of the films decreased down to 100 nm, while the films which were grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) retained relatively large non-volatile charges at the corresponding thickness. We concluded that in the CSD-grown films, the thicker interfacial passive layer compared with the MOCVD-grown films had an unfavorable effect on retention behavior. We observed the existence of such interfacial layers by extrapolation of the total capacitance with thickness of the films and the capacitance of these layers was larger in MOCVD-grown films than in CSD-grown films. Due to incomplete compensation of surface polarization charges by the free charges in the metal electrodes, the interfacial field activated the space charges inside the interfacial layers and deposited them at the boundary between the ferroelectric layer and the interfacial layer. Such space charges built up an internal field inside the films, which interfered with domain wall motion, so that retention property at last became degraded. We observed less imprint which was a result of less internal field in MOCVD-grown films while large imprint was observed in CSD-grown films.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
• /
• 1994.07b
• /
• pp.1274-1276
• /
• 1994

A study on $BaTiO_3$ ceramics have been shown that dielectric properties of $BaTiO_3$ ceramics strongly depend on the size and ferroelectric domain density of the constituting grain. According to rising substrate temperature from $25[^{\circ}C]$ to $600[^{\circ}C]$, the peak intensity and crystal plane in XRD are increased. In this study, $BaTiO_3$ thin film prepared by RF sputtering from room temperature to $600[^{\circ}C]$ of substrate temperature. Therefore, we tried to investigate the relation between the characteristics of ceramics structure and dielectric factor.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
• /
• v.33 no.10
• /
• pp.1101-1108
• /
• 1996

No-doped PZT thin films have been fabricated on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si substrate using Sol-Gel technique. A fast annealing metho (three times of intermediate and final annealing) was used for the preparation of multi-coated 1800$\AA$ thick Nb-doped PZT thin films. As Nb doping percent was increased leakage current was lowered approximately 2 order but dielectic properties were degraded due to the appearance of pyrochlore phase and domain pinning. Futhermore the increase of the final annealing temperature up to 74$0^{\circ}C$lowered the pyrochlore phase content resulting in enhancing the dielectric properties of the Nb doped films. The 3%-Nb doped PZT thin films with 5% excess Pb showed a capacitance density of 24.04 fF/${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$2 a dielectric loss of 0.13 a switchable polarization of 15.84 $\mu$C/cm2 and a coercive field of 32.7 kV/cm respectively. The leakage current density of the film was as low as 1.47$\times$10-7 A/cm2 at the applied voltage of 1.5 V.

• Electrical & Electronic Materials
• /
• v.8 no.5
• /
• pp.580-586
• /
• 1995

최근 커패시터의 전극은 Pt, Au등으로 이용되고 있다. 이러한 전극의 전기적 특성은 우수하나 고가이다. 본 연구에서는 전극의 저가격화 측면에서 알루미늄 전극 위에 BaTiO$_{3}$를 증착하고 기관의 온도를 실온에서 600[.deg. C]까지 변화시켜 RF스퍼터링법으로 제작하였다. BaTiO$_{3}$세라믹의 유전특성은 구성하고 있는 입자의 강유전 분역 밀도와 입자의 크기에 의존하므로 입자가 성장되는 온도영역에서 입자의 크기와 유전율간의 관계를 연구하였다. 또한 BaTiO$_{3}$박막 커패시터의 유전상수는 BaTiO$_{3}$세라믹과 알루미늄기관의 계면에서 산화특성이 일어나기 때문에 기관온도의 변화에 의해 조사되었다. 기관의 온도를 증가시킴에 따라 결정면의 피크와 강도는 증가하였으며, 유전특성은 결정입자의 크기가 0.8[.mu.m]일때 가장 양호하였다. 유전율값은 기판 온도가 400[.deg. C]일 때 가장 크게 나타났다. 결과적으로, 알루미늄 전극에 BaTiO$_{3}$세라믹을 증착하여 저가의 적층용 세라믹 콘덴서를 제조할 수 있음을 알았다.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.29 no.3
• /
• pp.150-154
• /
• 2019

This study investigates the effect of MnO2 and CuO as acceptor additives on the microstructure and piezoelectric properties of $0.96(K_{0.5}Na_{0.5})_{0.95}Li_{0.05}Nb_{0.93}Sb_{0.07}O_3-0.04BaZrO_3$, which has a rhombohedral-tetragonal phase boundary composition. $MnO_2$ and CuO-added $0.96(K_{0.5}Na_{0.5})_{0.95}Li_{0.05}Nb_{0.93}Sb_{0.07}O_3-0.04BaZrO_3$ ceramics sintered at a relatively low temperature of $1020^{\circ}C$ show a pure perovskite phase with no secondary phase. As the addition of $MnO_2$ and CuO increases, the sintered density and grain size of the resulting ceramics increases. Due to the difference in the amount of oxygen vacancies produced by B-site substitution, Cu ion doping is more effective for uniform grain growth than Mn ion doping. The formation of oxygen vacancies due to B-site substitution of Cu or Mn ions results in a hardening effect via ferroelectric domain pinning, leading to a reduction in the piezoelectric charge coefficient and improvement of the mechanical quality factor. For the same amount of additive, the addition of CuO is more advantageous for obtaining a high mechanical quality factor than the addition of $MnO_2$.