Microstructure and memory characteristics of ferroelectric LiNbO3/ZnO composite thin films on Pt/TiO2/SiO2/Si substrates

• Ferroelectric LiNbO3/ZnO composite films are fabricated and characterized.
• All the interfaces are clear without any evidence of interaction and diffusion.
• The memory characteristics are studied by capacitance–voltage (C–V) measurements.
• The composite thin film exhibits obvious counterclockwise C–V memory windows.
• The memory windows increase with applied voltage and no charge injection happens.

Composite thin films consisting of ferroelectric LiNbO3 (LN) and ZnO semiconductor layers were grown on Pt/TiO2/SiO2/Si substrates and characterized. The films were single c-axis orientation and had well-defined interfaces without any evidence of interfacial interaction and diffusion. Due to the ferroelectric polarization of LN, counterclockwise capacitance–voltage memory windows were observed clearly. The memory window increased with applied voltage and no obvious charge injection happened. At ±8 V, a large memory window of ∼3.3 V was exhibited. The present results suggest that LN ferroelectric films combined with ZnO semiconductor would hold promise for high-performance nonvolatile memory devices.