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Title: Wake-up and fatigue mechanisms in ferroelectric Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 films with symmetric RuO2 electrodes

Journal Article · · Journal of Applied Physics
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0064145· OSTI ID:1831810

In this work, the mechanisms leading to wake-up and fatigue in ferroelectric hafnium zirconium oxide thin film devices with symmetric RuO2 electrodes are investigated via polarization, relative permittivity, dielectric nonlinearity, pyroelectric coefficient, and microfocus X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements. The devices are observed to wake-up for up to 103 bipolar pulsed field cycles, after which fatigue occurs with the polarization approaching zero following 108 cycles. Wake-up is accompanied by a decrease in both high-field permittivity and hysteresis loop pinching and an increase in pyroelectric coefficient, indicating that the wake-up process involves a combination of transformations from the tetragonal to the orthorhombic phase and domain depinning from defect redistribution. Fatigue is observed to coincide with an increase in irreversible domain wall motion and a decrease in pyroelectric coefficient. Finite pyroelectric coefficients are measured on fully fatigued devices, indicating that domain pinning is a strong contributor to fatigue and that fatigued devices contain domain structures that are unable to switch under the fields applied for measurement. Microfocus XRD patterns measured on each device reveal that the phase constitution is qualitatively unaffected by the field cycling and resultant polarization fatigue. This data indicates that the wake-up process has contributions from both phase transformations and domain depinning, whereas the fatigue process is driven primarily by domain pinning, and the near-zero measured switchable polarization is actually a poled device with immobile domains. These observations provide insight into the physical changes occurring during field cycling of HfO2-based ferroelectrics while examining a possible oxide electrode material for silicon CMOS device implementation.

Research Organization:
Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); National Science Foundation (NSF)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0021118; NA0003525; CHE-2018870; DGE-1842490
OSTI ID:
1831810
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1823498
Journal Information:
Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 130, Issue 13; ISSN 0021-8979
Publisher:
American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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