%0 Journal Article %K Perovskite %K oxides %K Polarization %K Ferroelectric materials %K Thin film devices %K MOS devices %K Heterojunctions %K Lead compounds %K Lead zirconate titanate %K Point defects %K Barium titanate %K Relaxation processes %K Electric conductivity of solids %K Fatigue of materials %A S Aggarwal %A Ramamoorthy Ramesh %B Annual Review of Materials Science %D 1998 %G eng %I Annual Reviews Inc. %P 463-499 %R 10.1146/annurev.matsci.28.1.463 %T Point defect chemistry of metal oxide heterostructures %V 28 %X This article reviews the defect chemistry of perovskite ferroelectric oxides such as barium titanate and lead zirconate titanate. Such metal oxides are being considered for a wide range of applications that include nonvolatile memories and dynamic random access memories. Time-dependent degradation of these devices is controlled at least in part by point defects, which are determined by the defect chemistry of the material. The role of point defects on Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 thin film device properties such as fatigue, switching, polarization relaxation and imprint is discussed.