Fatigue mechanism of yttrium-doped hafnium oxide ferroelectric thin films fabricated by pulsed laser deposition

Fei Huang; Xing Chen; Xiao Liang; Jun Qin; Yan Zhang; Taixing Huang; Zhuo Wang; Bo Peng; Peiheng Zhou; Haipeng Lu; Li Zhang; Longjiang Deng; Ming Liu; Qi Liu; He Tian; Lei Bi

doi:10.1039/c6cp07501k

Fatigue mechanism of yttrium-doped hafnium oxide ferroelectric thin films fabricated by pulsed laser deposition

Phys Chem Chem Phys. 2017 Feb 1;19(5):3486-3497. doi: 10.1039/c6cp07501k.

Authors

Fei Huang¹, Xing Chen², Xiao Liang¹, Jun Qin¹, Yan Zhang¹, Taixing Huang³, Zhuo Wang⁴, Bo Peng¹, Peiheng Zhou¹, Haipeng Lu¹, Li Zhang¹, Longjiang Deng¹, Ming Liu⁵, Qi Liu⁵, He Tian², Lei Bi¹

Affiliations

¹ National Engineering Research Center of Electromagnetic Radiation Control Materials, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China. bilei@uestc.edu.cn and State Key Laboratory of Electronic Thin Films and Integrated Devices, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China and Key Laboratory of Multi-spectral Absorbing Materials and Structures of Ministry of Education, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China.
² Center of Electron Microscopy and State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China. hetian@zju.edu.cn.
³ National Engineering Research Center of Electromagnetic Radiation Control Materials, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China. bilei@uestc.edu.cn and State Key Laboratory of Electronic Thin Films and Integrated Devices, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China and Key Laboratory of Multi-spectral Absorbing Materials and Structures of Ministry of Education, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China and Sichuan Province Key Laboratory of Information Materials and Devices Application, Chengdu University of Information Technology, Chengdu 610225, China.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Electronic Thin Films and Integrated Devices, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China.
⁵ Key Laboratory of Microelectronics Device & Integrated Technology, Lab of Nanofabrication and Novel Device Integration, IMECAS, Beijing, China. liuqi@ime.ac.cn.

PMID: 27924320
DOI: 10.1039/c6cp07501k

Abstract

Owing to their prominent stability and CMOS compatibility, HfO₂-based ferroelectric films have attracted great attention as promising candidates for ferroelectric random-access memory applications. A major reliability issue for HfO₂ based ferroelectric devices is fatigue. So far, there have been a few studies on the fatigue mechanism of this material. Here, we report a systematic study of the fatigue mechanism of yttrium-doped hafnium oxide (HYO) ferroelectric thin films deposited by pulsed laser deposition. The influence of pulse width, pulse amplitude and temperature on the fatigue behavior of HYO during field cycling is studied. The temperature dependent conduction mechanism is characterized after different fatigue cycles. Domain wall pinning caused by carrier injection at shallow defect centers is found to be the major fatigue mechanism of this material. The fatigued device can fully recover to the fatigue-free state after being heated at 90 °C for 30 min, confirming the shallow trap characteristic of the domain wall pinning defects.