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Title: A comprehensive study on the structural evolution of HfO2 thin films doped with various dopants

Journal Article · · Journal of Materials Chemistry C
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1039/C7TC01200D· OSTI ID:1357985
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [3];  [3];  [1];  [3];  [3];  [1];  [1]
  1. NaMLab gGmbH, Dresden (Germany)
  2. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  3. North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC (United States)

The origin of the unexpected ferroelectricity in doped HfO2 thin films is now considered to be the formation of a non-centrosymmetric Pca21 orthorhombic phase. Due to the polycrystalline nature of the films as well as their extremely small thickness (~10 nm) and mixed orientation and phase composition, structural analysis of doped HfO2 thin films remains a challenging task. As a further complication, the structural similarities of the orthorhombic and tetragonal phase are difficult to distinguish by typical structural analysis techniques such as X-ray diffraction. To resolve this issue, the changes in the grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXRD) patterns of HfO2 films doped with Si, Al, and Gd are systematically examined. For all dopants, the shift of o111/t101 diffraction peak is observed with increasing atomic layer deposition (ALD) cycle ratio, and this shift is thought to originate from the orthorhombic to P42/nmc tetragonal phase transition with decreasing aspect ratio (2a/(b + c) for orthorhombic and c/a for the tetragonal phase). For quantitative phase analysis, Rietveld refinement is applied to the GIXRD patterns. A progressive phase transition from P21/c monoclinic to orthorhombic to tetragonal is confirmed for all dopants, and a strong relationship between orthorhombic phase fraction and remanent polarization value is uniquely demonstrated. The concentration range for the ferroelectric properties was the narrowest for the Si-doped HfO2 films. As a result, the dopant size is believed to strongly affect the concentration range for the ferroelectric phase stabilization, since small dopants can strongly decrease the free energy of the tetragonal phase due to their shorter metal–oxygen bonds.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
1357985
Journal Information:
Journal of Materials Chemistry C, Vol. 5, Issue 19; ISSN 2050-7526
Publisher:
Royal Society of ChemistryCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 196 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Atomic Structure of Domain and Interphase Boundaries in Ferroelectric HfO 2 journal January 2018
Polymer‐Assisted Deposition of Al‐Doped HfO 2 Thin Film with Excellent Dielectric Properties journal May 2019
Si Doped Hafnium Oxide-A “Fragile” Ferroelectric System journal August 2017
Origin of Temperature-Dependent Ferroelectricity in Si-Doped HfO 2 journal March 2018
Effect of Annealing Ferroelectric HfO 2 Thin Films: In Situ, High Temperature X-Ray Diffraction journal May 2018
Thermodynamic and Kinetic Origins of Ferroelectricity in Fluorite Structure Oxides journal December 2018
On the Origin of the Large Remanent Polarization in La:HfO 2 journal September 2019
A Comparative Study of the γ‐Ray Radiation Effect on Zr‐Doped and Al‐Doped HfO 2 ‐Based Ferroelectric Memory journal February 2020
Crystal Phase Distribution and Ferroelectricity in Ultrathin HfO 2 –ZrO 2 Bilayers journal September 2019
Al-, Y-, and La-doping effects favoring intrinsic and field induced ferroelectricity in HfO 2 : A first principles study journal April 2018
Pyroelectricity of silicon-doped hafnium oxide thin films journal April 2018
Thermodynamic control of ferroelectric-phase formation in Hf x Zr 1− x O 2 and ZrO 2 journal November 2018
Growth and ferroelectric properties of yttrium-doped hafnium oxide/indium-tin oxide polycrystalline heterostructures with sharp and uniform interfaces journal September 2018
Mitigating wakeup effect and improving endurance of ferroelectric HfO 2 -ZrO 2 thin films by careful La-doping journal January 2019
Formation of the orthorhombic phase in CeO 2 -HfO 2 solid solution epitaxial thin films and their ferroelectric properties journal June 2019
Structure of HfO 2 modified with Y, Gd, and Zr at ambient conditions and high pressures journal November 2019
Evolution of crystallographic structure and ferroelectricity of Hf 0.5 Zr 0.5 O 2 films with different deposition rate journal January 2020
Fluorite-structure antiferroelectrics journal November 2019
Origin of Pyroelectricity in Ferroelectric HfO 2 journal September 2019
Atomic Layer Deposition and Properties of HfO 2 -Al 2 O 3 Nanolaminates journal January 2018
Ferroelectric hafnium oxide for ferroelectric random-access memories and ferroelectric field-effect transistors journal May 2018
Bulk Depolarization Fields as a Major Contributor to the Ferroelectric Reliability Performance in Lanthanum Doped Hf 0.5 Zr 0.5 O 2 Capacitors journal August 2019
Crystal Phase Distribution and Ferroelectricity in Ultrathin HfO 2 –ZrO 2 Bilayers journal September 2019
Microstructural and Thermomechanical Comparison of Ni-Rich and Ni-Lean NiTi-20 at.% Hf High Temperature Shape Memory Alloy Wires journal December 2019
Ferroelectric and pyroelectric properties of polycrystalline La-doped HfO 2 thin films journal March 2019
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Epitaxial ferroelectric Hf 0.5 Zr 0.5 O 2 thin film on a buffered YSZ substrate through interface reaction journal January 2018

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