Effect of dielectric layer on ferroelectric responses of P(VDF-TrFE) thin films

The dielectric layer in the sandwich structural device plays a very important role in determining the electrical properties of the ferroelectric film. In this paper, we investigate the effect of the dielectric layers with different thicknesses on switching performance of ferroelectric P(VDF-TrFE) thin films. The hysteresis loops become slanting with increasing thickness of the dielectric layer. A negative slope of the 'real' hysteresis loop is apparently observed which demonstrates negative capacitance effect caused by the dielectric layer. This behavior is simulated qualitatively by the Weiss mean field model considering an interfacial dielectric layer in series with a ferroelectric layer. The agreement between experiments and simulations supports that negative capacitance results from the positive feedback among electric dipoles. Furthermore, the switching time of the ferroelectric film increases with the increase of dielectric layer thickness. This study shows that the ferroelectric sandwich structure provides great potential towards low power negative capacitance devices. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.