Negative capacitance induced by redistribution of oxygen vacancies in the fatigued BiFeO3-based thin film.

The capacitance dispersion in La and Mg co-substituted BiFeO3 thin film has been studied at different stages of polarization switching. A negative capacitance (NC) behavior is observed in the sample that is fatigued above 109 switching cycles. The origin of the NC is investigated through analyzing relaxation processes and charge transport kinetics by admittance spectroscopy. An activation energy of ∼0.6 eV and a zero field mobility μ0=5.33±0.02×10-13m2/Vs are thus obtained. A physical mechanism is proposed to explain this behavior. It involves a redistribution of oxygen vacancies, which are trapped at the film/electrode interface during the fatigue process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]