Electric field and temperature scaling of polarization reversal in silicon doped hafnium oxide ferroelectric thin films. (15th October 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zhou, Dayu; Guan, Yan; Vopson, Melvin M.; Xu, Jin; Liang, Hailong; Cao, Fei; Dong, Xianlin; Mueller, Johannes; Schenk, Tony; Schroeder, Uwe
• Is Part Of: Acta materialia. Volume 99(2015)
• Page Start: 240
• Page End: 246
• Publication Date: 2015-10-15
• Subjects: Hafnium oxide -- Ferroelectric -- Domain switching -- Temperature dependence -- Endurance; Materials -- Periodicals; Materials science -- Periodicals; Materials -- Mechanical properties -- Periodicals; Metallurgy -- Periodicals; Chemistry, Inorganic -- Periodicals; 620.112
• DOI: 10.1016/j.actamat.2015.07.035
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1359-6454

Abstract

Abstract: HfO2 -based binary lead-free ferroelectrics show promising properties for non-volatile memory applications, providing that their polarization reversal behavior is fully understood. In this work, temperature-dependent polarization hysteresis measured over a wide applied field range has been investigated for Si-doped HfO2 ferroelectric thin films. Our study indicates that in the low and medium electric field regimes ( E < twofold coercive field, 2 E c ), the reversal process is dominated by the thermal activation on domain wall motion and domain nucleation; while in the high-field regime ( E > 2 E c ), a non-equilibrium nucleation-limited-switching mechanism dominates the reversal process. The optimum field for ferroelectric random access memory (FeRAM) applications was determined to be around 2.0 MV/cm, which translates into a 2.0 V potential applied across the 10 nm thick films.