Hysteretic properties of Mn-doped Pb(Zr,Ti)O₃ thin films

Pb(Zr,Ti)O₃ (PZT 30/70) and Mn-doped Pb(Zr,Ti)O₃ (PMZT 30/70) thin films have been fabricated on Pt/Ti/SiO₂/Si substrates by a chemical solution deposition technique. The experiments found that the addition of Mn in PZT thin films greatly improves the ferroelectric properties of thin films. It is demonstrated that the Mn-doped (1 mol%) PZT showed fatigue-free characteristics at least up to 10¹⁰ switching bipolar pulse cycles under 10 V and excellent retention properties. The Mn-doped PZT thin films also exhibited well-defined hysteresis loops with a remnant polarization (Pr) of 34 μC/cm² and a coercive field (Ec) of 100 kV/cm for the thickness of 300 nm. Dielectric constant and loss (tanδ) for Mn doped PZT thin films are 214 and 0.008, respectively. These figures compare well with or exceed the values reported previously. In this paper, the mechanism by which Mn influences on the ferroelectric properties of PZT thin films has also been discussed.