Programmable Ferroelectricity in Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 Enabled by Oxygen Defect Engineering

Minghao Shao; Houfang Liu; Ri He; Xiaomei Li; Liang Wu; Ji Ma; Chen Ye; Xiangchen Hu; Ruiting Zhao; Zhicheng Zhong; Yi Yu; Caihua Wan; Yi Yang; Ce-Wen Nan; Xuedong Bai; Tian-Ling Ren; X Renshaw Wang

doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.3c04104

Programmable Ferroelectricity in Hf_0.5Zr_0.5O₂ Enabled by Oxygen Defect Engineering

Nano Lett. 2024 Jan 31;24(4):1231-1237. doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.3c04104. Epub 2024 Jan 22.

Authors

Minghao Shao¹, Houfang Liu¹, Ri He², Xiaomei Li³, Liang Wu^{4

5}, Ji Ma⁵, Chen Ye⁴, Xiangchen Hu⁶, Ruiting Zhao¹, Zhicheng Zhong², Yi Yu⁶, Caihua Wan⁷, Yi Yang¹, Ce-Wen Nan⁸, Xuedong Bai⁷, Tian-Ling Ren¹, X Renshaw Wang^{4

9}

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Microelectronics and Beijing National Research Center for Information Science and Technology (BNRist), Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
² Key Laboratory of Magnetic Materials and Devices, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo 315201, China.
³ School of Integrated Circuits, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China.
⁴ Division of Physics and Applied Physics, School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, 21 Nanyang Link, Singapore 637371.
⁵ Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming 650093, China.
⁶ School of Physical Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai 201210, China.
⁷ Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
⁸ School of Materials Science and Engineering, State Key Laboratory of New Ceramics and Fine Processing, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
⁹ School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798.

PMID: 38251914
DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.3c04104

Abstract

Ferroelectricity, especially the Si-compatible type recently observed in hafnia-based materials, is technologically useful for modern memory and logic applications, but it is challenging to differentiate intrinsic ferroelectric polarization from the polar phase and oxygen vacancy. Here, we report electrically controllable ferroelectricity in a Hf_0.5Zr_0.5O₂-based heterostructure with Sr-doped LaMnO₃, a mixed ionic-electronic conductor, as an electrode. Electrically reversible extraction and insertion of an oxygen vacancy into Hf_0.5Zr_0.5O₂ are macroscopically characterized and atomically imaged in situ. Utilizing this reversible process, we achieved multilevel polarization states modulated by the electric field. Our study demonstrates the usefulness of the mixed conductor to repair, create, manipulate, and utilize advanced ferroelectric functionality. Furthermore, the programmed ferroelectric heterostructures with Si-compatible doped hafnia are desirable for the development of future ferroelectric electronics.

Keywords: ferroelectric HZO; in situ characterization; multilevel polarization states; oxygen defect.