Impact of Oxygen Vacancy on Ferroelectric Characteristics and Its Implication for Wake-Up and Fatigue of HfO2-Based Thin Films

In this article, a phase-field polarization switching model for ferroelectric HfO<sub>2</sub>-based thin films considering oxygen vacancies (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${V}_{o}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) has been developed based on the 2-D time-dependent Ginzburg–Landau (TDGL) equation coupling with Poisson’s equation. The impacts of nonuniform <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${V}_{o}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> distributions induced by the monolayer grains in ultra-scaled Hf<sub>0.5</sub>Zr<sub>0.5</sub>O<sub>2</sub> (HZO) films and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${V}_{o}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> concentrations on ferroelectric characteristics are investigated in detail by the developed model which is verified and calibrated by measurement results of HZO. Furthermore, possible mechanisms of wake-up and fatigue are revealed by the simulation with the proposed model. It is clarified that the redistribution of nonuniform <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${V}_{o}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> in the in-plane direction leads to the transition from a pinched polarization-voltage curve to a conventional one at the early stage of wake-up, while the generation of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${V}_{o}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> within a ferroelectric film results in ferroelectricity enhancement and reduction in wake-up and fatigue processes, respectively.

[1]  A. Locatelli,et al.  Oxygen vacancy concentration as a function of cycling and polarization state in TiN/Hf0.5Zr0.5O2/TiN ferroelectric capacitors studied by x-ray photoemission electron microscopy , 2022, Applied Physics Letters.

[2]  S. Chae,et al.  Modulating the Ferroelectricity of Hafnium Zirconium Oxide Ultrathin Films via Interface Engineering to Control the Oxygen Vacancy Distribution , 2022, Advanced Materials Interfaces.

[3]  X. Miao,et al.  Atomic-scale characterization of defects generation during fatigue in ferroelectric Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 films: vacancy generation and lattice dislocation , 2021, 2021 IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM).

[4]  Michael J. Hoffmann,et al.  Polarization switching in thin doped HfO2 ferroelectric layers , 2020, Applied Physics Letters.

[5]  T. Mikolajick,et al.  Stabilizing the ferroelectric phase in HfO2-based films sputtered from ceramic targets under ambient oxygen. , 2020, Nanoscale.

[6]  S. Datta,et al.  Ferroelectric Thickness Dependent Domain Interactions in FEFETs for Memory and Logic: A Phase-field Model based Analysis , 2020, 2020 IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM).

[7]  T. Mikolajick,et al.  Impact of Oxygen Vacancy Content in Ferroelectric HZO films on the Device Performance , 2020, 2020 IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM).

[8]  H. Lv,et al.  Wake‐Up Effect in HfO2‐Based Ferroelectric Films , 2020, Advanced Electronic Materials.

[9]  T. Mikolajick,et al.  Wake‐Up Mechanisms in Ferroelectric Lanthanum‐Doped Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 Thin Films , 2020, physica status solidi (a).

[10]  I. Fina,et al.  Fatigue and retention in the growth window of ferroelectric Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 thin films , 2020, 2008.07395.

[11]  Guodong Yin,et al.  A Comprehensive Model for Ferroelectric FET Capturing the Key Behaviors: Scalability, Variation, Stochasticity, and Accumulation , 2020, 2020 IEEE Symposium on VLSI Technology.

[12]  S. Gupta,et al.  Multi-Domain Negative Capacitance Effects in Metal-Ferroelectric-Insulator-Semiconductor/Metal Stacks: A Phase-field Simulation Based Study , 2019, Scientific Reports.

[13]  Jie Jiang,et al.  The effects of oxygen vacancies on ferroelectric phase transition of HfO2-based thin film from first-principle , 2019, Computational Materials Science.

[14]  Jiezhi Chen,et al.  Spontaneous polarization enhancement in ferroelectric Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 using atomic oxygen defects engineering: An ab initio study , 2019, Applied Physics Letters.

[15]  T. Perevalov,et al.  Effect of oxygen vacancies on the ferroelectric Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 stabilization: DFT simulation , 2019, Microelectronic Engineering.

[16]  Suman Datta,et al.  Fundamental Understanding and Control of Device-to-Device Variation in Deeply Scaled Ferroelectric FETs , 2019, 2019 Symposium on VLSI Technology.

[17]  C. Hwang,et al.  Modeling of Negative Capacitance in Ferroelectric Thin Films , 2019, Advanced materials.

[18]  Y. Hao,et al.  Thermally Stable and Radiation Hard Ferroelectric Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 Thin Films on Muscovite Mica for Flexible Nonvolatile Memory Applications , 2019, ACS Applied Electronic Materials.

[19]  Jacob L. Jones,et al.  Origin of Ferroelectric Phase in Undoped HfO2 Films Deposited by Sputtering , 2019, Advanced Materials Interfaces.

[20]  S. Slesazeck,et al.  Identification of the nature of traps involved in the field cycling of Hf0.5Zr0.5O2-based ferroelectric thin films , 2019, Acta Materialia.

[21]  Sergei V. Kalinin,et al.  Possible electrochemical origin of ferroelectricity in HfO2 thin films , 2018, 1811.09787.

[22]  Sergei V. Kalinin,et al.  Ferroelectricity induced by oxygen vacancies in relaxors with perovskite structure , 2018, Physical Review B.

[23]  T. Mikolajick,et al.  Nanoscopic studies of domain structure dynamics in ferroelectric La:HfO2 capacitors , 2018, Applied Physics Letters.

[24]  D. Pramanik,et al.  Enhancing ferroelectricity in dopant-free hafnium oxide , 2017 .

[25]  Michael J. Hoffmann,et al.  Direct Observation of Negative Capacitance in Polycrystalline Ferroelectric HfO2 , 2016 .

[26]  Stephan Menzel,et al.  Evidence for oxygen vacancies movement during wake-up in ferroelectric hafnium oxide , 2016 .

[27]  A. Morozovska,et al.  Effect of Vegard strains on the extrinsic size effects in ferroelectric nanoparticles , 2014 .

[28]  Lothar Frey,et al.  Ferroelectricity in Simple Binary ZrO2 and HfO2. , 2012, Nano letters.

[29]  U. Böttger,et al.  Ferroelectricity in hafnium oxide thin films , 2011 .

[30]  T. Granzow,et al.  Dynamics of polarization reversal in virgin and fatigued ferroelectric ceramics by inhomogeneous field mechanism , 2010 .

[31]  A. Tagantsev,et al.  Non-Kolmogorov-Avrami switching kinetics in ferroelectric thin films , 2002 .

[32]  T. Boscke,et al.  Ferroelectricity in hafnium oxide: CMOS compatible ferroelectric field effect transistors , 2011, 2011 International Electron Devices Meeting.