Double swing quiescent-current: An experimental detection method of ferroelectricity in very leaky dielectric films

Abstract

A new method to characterize the properties of leaky ferroelectric films is proposed. Double swing quiescent-current technique allows to obtain coercive field and remanent polarization in those cases in which high leakage, trap generation current and displacement current mask the ferroelectric terms themselves. Double swing quiescent-current technique allows to detect ferroelectric behavior even in highly conductive materials and obtain reliable values of the remanent polarization and coercive fields which are not affected by the parasitic effects of leakage and displacement currents. In this work, we demonstrate this technique for the case of amorphous SiO2-Nb2O5 nanolaminates and mixture films fabricated by atomic layer deposition.