This book, the eighth in a popular series from MRS, features the latest technical information on ferroelectric thin films from an international mix of academia, industry and government organizations. Recent results for DRAM and FERAM devices, as well as enhancements in material performance for these applications, are presented. Significant advances in understanding leakage current, frequency dependence of the coercive field, hydrogen annealing effects, piezoelectric constants, and domain switching responses are highlighted. The development of ferroelectric thin films for piezoelectric applications are also reviewed, as are improved film-fabrication procedures including chemical vapor deposition and chemical solution deposition. Topics include: BST thin films and DRAM; integration and electrodes; Bi-based thin-film ferroelectrics; Pb-based thin-film ferroelectrics; fundamental properties of thin-film ferroelectrics; ferroelectric gate materials and devices; and piezoelectric, pyro-electric and capacitor devices and novel processing strategies.

The MRS Symposium Proceeding series is an internationally recognised reference suitable for researchers and practitioners.

A major barrier to the introduction of ferroelectric devices into mass markets remains their limited reliability due to fatigue. The underlying physical and chemical mechanisms of this material fatigue phenomenon are extremely complex, and the relevant influences range from single-point defects to macroscopic boundary conditions. This book summarizes the different aspects of fatigue in ferroelectrics. It is primarily concerned with bulk material effects. Mechanical, electrical, and physico-chemical processes are described; reference data are given for different loading regimes and boundary conditions; and various fatigue models are compared. The monograph also demonstrates how the results of acoustic emission and of microscopy studies reveal the microscopic origins of fatigue in ferroelectric devices.

Epitaxial growth has always been a marriage of convenience between film and substrate. More and more frequently, however, it is impractical to use the same material for both film and substrate because it is not available as large single crystals, it is prohibitively expensive, or its properties are ill-suited for the intended application. To meet these challenges, many strategies have been pursued to achieve highly oriented or single-crystal thin films via epitaxy. Crystalline films have been mechanically bonded to other materials to form composite substrates. Crystals have been cut and rewelded, patterned and regrown, buffer layered and repolished. Each strategy has met with fundamental challenges including lattice mismatch, chemical incompatibility, differences in thermal expansion, and structural dissimilarity. This book, first published in 2000, focuses on developments in novel substrate engineering which enable improved epitaxy. Topics include: biaxially textured substrates for high-Tc-coated conductors; surfaces for oxide epitaxy; wafer bonding and lift off; lattice mismatch engineering; substrate engineering and solid-phase recrystallization and epitaxy.