Effects of Oxygen Flow during Fabrication by Magnetron Sputtering on Structure and Performance of Zr-Doped HfO₂ Thin Films

Oxygen defects in Hafnium Oxide (HfO₂)-based ferroelectric thin films not only are related to the cause of ferroelectricity but also affect the ferroelectric properties of the thin films. This paper, therefore, focuses on the fabrication of Zr:HfO₂ thin films by RF (Radio Frequency) magnetron sputtering with Zr-doped HfO₂ as the target and examines how oxygen flow impacts the oxygen vacancies and electrical properties thereof. Additionally, TiN thin-film electrodes were prepared by direct current (DC) magnetron reactive sputtering using nitrogen as the reaction gas, the influences of the substrate temperature on the film deposition rate and crystal phase structure were investigated, and the resultant thin-film electrodes with the lowest resistivity were obtained. Furthermore, the ferroelectric hysteresis loop and leakage current density of metal-insulator-metal (MIM) ferroelectric capacitors formed by annealing the 30 nm thick deposited Zr:HfO₂ sandwiched between the top and bottom TiN electrodes were measured. The results demonstrate that varying oxygen flow has a considerable effect on oxygen vacancies and the Zr doping concentration of deposited Zr:HfO₂ ferroelectric thin films. When the oxygen flow is set to 40 sccm (standard cubic centimeters per minute) and an external electric field strength of 2 mV/cm is applied, the remnant polarization reaches 18 μC/cm², with a decrease in the leakage current density of 10^5-6 orders of magnitude.