Abstract

As compared to usual planar capacitors, three-dimensional (3D) ferroelectric capacitors display a large polarization increase due to the additional electrical contribution of the capacitor sidewalls. However, in 3D capacitors the polarization increase with respect to the planar geometry is lower than expected. To uncover the origin of this discrepancy, the microstructure of 3D Sr0.8Bi2.2Ta2O9-based (SBT) capacitors was studied. First, high-resolution synchrotron x-ray diffraction has found a unit cell expansion of the SBT phase in the capacitor sidewalls. From local chemical analyses, this lattice distortion has been correlated to composition variations in this region. These microstructural changes are due to the peculiar topography of the etched bottom electrode and to the variety of layers in contact with the SBT film, which can explain the nonoptimized polarization in 3D capacitors. (C) 2005 American Institute of Physics.