Phase-Exchange-Driven Wake-Up and Fatigue in Ferroelectric Hafnium Zirconium Oxide Films
- Univ. of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA (United States)
- Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Lemont, IL (United States). Advanced Photon Source (APS)
Ferroelectric hafnium zirconium oxide holds great promise for a broad spectrum of complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) compatible and scaled microelectronic applications, including memory, low-voltage transistors, and infrared sensors, among others. An outstanding challenge hindering the implementation of this material is polarization instability during field cycling. In this study, the nanoscale phenomena contributing to both polarization fatigue and wake-up are reported. Using synchrotron X-ray diffraction, the conversion of non-polar tetragonal and polar orthorhombic phases to a non-polar monoclinic phase while field cycling devices comprising noble metal contacts is observed. This phase exchange accompanies a diminishing ferroelectric remanent polarization and provides device-scale crystallographic evidence of phase exchange leading to ferroelectric fatigue in these structures. A reduction in the full width at half-maximum of the superimposed tetragonal (101) and orthorhombic (111) diffraction reflections is observed to accompany wake-up in structures comprising tantalum nitride and tungsten electrodes. Combined with polarization and relative permittivity measurements, the observed peak narrowing and a shift in position to lower angles is attributed, in part, to a phase exchange of the non-polar tetragonal to the polar orthorhombic phase during wake-up. These results provide insight into the role of electrodes in the performance of hafnium oxide-based ferroelectrics and mechanisms driving wake-up and fatigue, and demonstrate a non-destructive means to characterize the phase changes accompanying polarization instabilities.
- Research Organization:
- Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Advanced Photon Source (APS)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program; Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC04-94AL85000; NA0003525; AC02-06CH11357
- OSTI ID:
- 1639052
- Alternate ID(s):
- OSTI ID: 1798708
- Report Number(s):
- SAND-2020-6195J; 1944-8252; 686741
- Journal Information:
- ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, Vol. 12, Issue 23; ISSN 1944-8244
- Publisher:
- American Chemical Society (ACS)Copyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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