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Research Article

Microscopic mechanism of imprint in hafnium oxide-based ferroelectrics

Peng Yuan1,2, Ge-Qi Mao3, Yan Cheng4, Kan-Hao Xue3( ), Yunzhe Zheng4, Yang Yang1, Pengfei Jiang1,2, Yannan Xu1,2, Yuan Wang1,2, Yuhao Wang1,2, Yaxin Ding1,2, Yuting Chen1,2, Zhiwei Dang1,2, Lu Tai1, Tiancheng Gong1, Qing Luo1,5( ), Xiangshui Miao3, Qi Liu1
Key Laboratory of Microelectronic Devices and Integrated Technology, Institute of Microelectronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No.3, Beitucheng West Road, Beijing 100029, China
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 19 Yuquan Road, Beijing 100049, China
School of Integrated Circuits, School of Optical and Electronic Information, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 1037 Luoyu Road, Wuhan 430074, China
Key Laboratory of Polar Materials and Devices (MOE), Department of Electronics, East China Normal University, 100 Guilin Road, Shanghai 430079, China
Department of Mathematics and Theories, Peng Cheng Laboratory, No.2, Xingke 1st Street, Shenzhen 518055, China
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Graphical Abstract

We investigated the mechanism of ferroelectric imprint in Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 (HZO) thin films using standard TiN electrodes. Based on this model, an effective imprint recovery method has been proposed for improving the device reliability of hafniabased ferroelectric memories (FeRAMs).

Abstract

Hafnia-based ferroelectrics have greatly revived the field of ferroelectric memory (FeRAM), but certain reliability issues must be satisfactorily resolved before they can be widely applied in commercial memories. In particular, the imprint phenomenon severely jeopardizes the read-out reliability in hafnia-based ferroelectric capacitors, but its origin remains unclear, which hinders the development of its recovery schemes. In this work, we have systematically investigated the imprint mechanism in TiN/Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 (HZO)/TiN ferroelectric capacitors using experiments and first-principles calculations. It is shown that carrier injection-induced charged oxygen vacancies are at the heart of imprint in HZO, where other mechanisms such as domain pinning and dead layer are less important. An imprint model based on electron de-trapping from oxygen vacancy sites has been proposed that can satisfactorily explain several experimental facts such as the strong asymmetric imprint, leakage current variation, and so forth. Based on this model, an effective imprint recovery method has been proposed, which utilizes unipolar rather than bipolar voltage inputs. The remarkable recovery performances demonstrate the prospect of improved device reliability in hafnia-based FeRAM devices.

Keywords

hafnia-based ferroelectricimprintbuild-in electric fieldoxygen vacancyrecovery

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Nano Research
Volume 15 Issue 4,
April 2022
Pages 3667-3674
DOI: 10.1007/s12274-021-4047-y
Cite this article:
Yuan P, Mao G-Q, Cheng Y, et al. Microscopic mechanism of imprint in hafnium oxide-based ferroelectrics. Nano Research, 2022, 15(4): 3667-3674. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-021-4047-y
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Received: 27 August 2021
Revised: 05 December 2021
Accepted: 05 December 2021
Published: 18 January 2022
© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2021
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