Transport and Fatigue Properties of Ferroelectric Polymer P(VDF-TrFE) For Nonvolatile Memory Applications

Abstract

Organic ferroelectrics polymers have recently received much interest for use in nonvolatile memory devices. The ferroelectric copolymer poly(vinylidene fluoride- trifluoroethylene) , P(VDF-TrFE), is a promising candidate due to its relatively high remnant polarization, low coercive field, fast switching times, easy processability, and low Curie transition. However, no detailed study of charge injection and current transport properties in P(VDF-TrFE) have been reported in the literature yet. Charge injection and transport are believed to affect various properties of ferroelectric films such as remnant polarization values and polarization fatigue behavior.. Thus, this thesis aims to study charge injection in P(VDF-TrFE) and its transport properties as a function of electrode material. Injection was studied for Al, Ag, Au and Pt electrodes. Higher work function metals such as Pt have shown less leakage current compared to lower work function metals such as Al for more than an order of magnitude. That implied n-type conduction behavior for P(VDF-TrFE), as well as electrons being the dominant injected carrier type. Charge transport was also studied as a function of temperature, and two major transport regimes were identified: 1) Thermionic emission over a Schottky barrier for low fields (E < 25 MV/m). 2) Space-Charge-Limited regime at higher fields (25 < E

Date of Award	Jun 2012
Original language	English (US)
Awarding Institution	Physical Sciences and Engineering
Supervisor	Husam Alshareef (Supervisor)