IOP PUBLISHING JOURNAL OF PHYSICS D: APPLIED PHYSICS J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 41 (2008) 205003 (7pp) doi:10.1088/0022-3727/41/20/205003 Leakage current characteristics and dielectric breakdown of antiferroelectric Pb 0.92 La 0.08 Zr 0.95 Ti 0.05 O 3 film capacitors grown on metal foils Beihai Ma 1 , Do-Kyun Kwon 2 , Manoj Narayanan and U (Balu) Balachandran Energy Systems Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL 60439, USA E-mail: bma@anl.gov Received 28 May 2008, in final form 8 August 2008 Published 25 September 2008 Online at stacks.iop.org/JPhysD/41/205003 Abstract We have grown crack-free antiferroelectric (AFE) Pb 0.92 La 0.08 Zr 0.95 Ti 0.05 O 3 (PLZT) films on nickel foils by chemical solution deposition. To eliminate the parasitic effect caused by the formation of a low-permittivity interfacial oxide, we applied a conductive buffer layer of lanthanum nickel oxide (LNO) on the nickel foil by chemical solution deposition prior to the PLZT deposition. Use of the LNO buffer allowed high-quality film-on-foil capacitors to be prepared at high temperatures in air. With the AFE PLZT deposited on LNO-buffered Ni foils, we observed field-induced phase transformations of AFE to ferroelectric (FE). The AFE-to-FE phase transition field, E AF = 260 kV cm −1 , and the reverse phase transition field, E FA = 220 kV cm −1 , were measured at room temperature on a ∼1.15 µm thick PLZT film grown on LNO-buffered Ni foils. The relative permittivities of the AFE and FE states were ∼530 and ∼740, respectively, with dielectric loss <0.05 at room temperature. P –E hysteresis loop measured at room temperature confirmed the field-induced phase transition. The time-relaxation current density was investigated under various applied electric fields. The leakage current density of a 1.15 µm thick AFE PLZT film-on-foil capacitor was 5 × 10 −9 A cm −2 at room temperature under 87 kV cm −1 applied field. The breakdown behaviour of the AFE PLZT film-on-foil capacitors was studied by Weibull analysis. The mean breakdown time decreased exponentially with increasing applied field. The mean breakdown time was over 610 s when a field of 1.26 MV cm −1 was applied to a 1.15 µm thick AFE PLZT film-on-foil capacitor. (Some figures in this article are in colour only in the electronic version) 1. Introduction In recent years, interest has grown about the development of crack-free antiferroelectric (AFE) ceramic films because of the anticipated applications for decoupling capacitors, micro- actuators, electro-optical components and digital memories [1–4]. The AFE ceramics are a subclass of dielectrics in 1 Author to whom any correspondence should be addressed. 2 Current address: Materials Engineering Department, Korea Aerospace University, Gyeonggi-do, Korea. which the orientations of the dipoles are alternately aligned in opposite directions, and no spontaneous polarization exists. Meanwhile, the AFE phase can be induced to the ferroelectric (FE) phase when the applied electric field is above a threshold electric field (E AF ); the FE state can return to the AFE state when the bias field is decreased below a threshold electric field (E FA ). An AFE material is characterized by the double polarization-electric field (P –E) hysteresis loops under an external dc bias field. The double hysteresis loops are caused by a structural phase transformation induced by the external 0022-3727/08/205003+07$30.00 1 © 2008 IOP Publishing Ltd Printed in the UK