Peak splitting and bias fields in ferroelectric hafnia mediated by interface charge effects

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Engl, Moritz, Hamouda, Wassim, Häusler, Ines, Lancaster, Suzanne, Carpentieri, Luca, Mikolajick, Thomas, Dubourdieu, Catherine, Slesazeck, Stefan
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866912274975817728
author Engl, Moritz
Hamouda, Wassim
Häusler, Ines
Lancaster, Suzanne
Carpentieri, Luca
Mikolajick, Thomas
Dubourdieu, Catherine
Slesazeck, Stefan
author_facet Engl, Moritz
Hamouda, Wassim
Häusler, Ines
Lancaster, Suzanne
Carpentieri, Luca
Mikolajick, Thomas
Dubourdieu, Catherine
Slesazeck, Stefan
contents The pristine state of hafnium based ferroelectric devices exhibits various unwanted properties, such as imprint and peak splitting, which diminish with bipolar cycling. The incorporation of a niobium oxide layer at different positions in metal-ferroelectric-metal and metal-ferroelectric-insulator-metal stacks is used to modify the pristine state of the device. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy measurements are used to investigate the influence of niobium oxide on the zirconium hafnium oxide layer. It is hypothesized that the charged vacancies generated by the introduced niobium oxide in the adjacent zirconium hafnium oxide layer result in an electric bias field that influences the pristine polarization state of the domains. A comparison of different stacks shows that peak splitting in the pristine state is most likely related to the formation of opposing electric bias fields in upwards and downwards polarized domains. Furthermore, the incorporation of niobium oxide in the zirconium hafnium oxide/aluminum oxide capacitor stack in between the ferroelectric and insulating layer leads to a peak splitting free device without imprint, which could be explained by the increased influence of charge trapping near the zirconium hafnium oxide-/niobium oxide and niobium oxide-/aluminum oxide interfaces.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_11578
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Peak splitting and bias fields in ferroelectric hafnia mediated by interface charge effects
Engl, Moritz
Hamouda, Wassim
Häusler, Ines
Lancaster, Suzanne
Carpentieri, Luca
Mikolajick, Thomas
Dubourdieu, Catherine
Slesazeck, Stefan
Materials Science
Applied Physics
The pristine state of hafnium based ferroelectric devices exhibits various unwanted properties, such as imprint and peak splitting, which diminish with bipolar cycling. The incorporation of a niobium oxide layer at different positions in metal-ferroelectric-metal and metal-ferroelectric-insulator-metal stacks is used to modify the pristine state of the device. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy measurements are used to investigate the influence of niobium oxide on the zirconium hafnium oxide layer. It is hypothesized that the charged vacancies generated by the introduced niobium oxide in the adjacent zirconium hafnium oxide layer result in an electric bias field that influences the pristine polarization state of the domains. A comparison of different stacks shows that peak splitting in the pristine state is most likely related to the formation of opposing electric bias fields in upwards and downwards polarized domains. Furthermore, the incorporation of niobium oxide in the zirconium hafnium oxide/aluminum oxide capacitor stack in between the ferroelectric and insulating layer leads to a peak splitting free device without imprint, which could be explained by the increased influence of charge trapping near the zirconium hafnium oxide-/niobium oxide and niobium oxide-/aluminum oxide interfaces.
title Peak splitting and bias fields in ferroelectric hafnia mediated by interface charge effects
topic Materials Science
Applied Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.11578