Epitaxial Ferroelectric Hf_0.5Zr_0.5O₂ Thin Films and Their Implementations in Memristors for Brain‐Inspired Computing

Abstract

Abstract Doped‐HfO 2 thin films with ferroelectricity have attracted great attention due to their potential application in semiconductor industry as negative capacitance and resistance switching memory. Despite Hf 0.5 Zr 0.5 O 2 (HZO) thin films having the most robust ferroelectric properties among all doped‐HfO 2 thin films, the realization of single orthorhombic phase HZO thin films is not achieved, while the direct evidence between the structural–properties relationship of orthorhombic phase HZO and ferroelectricity is not confirmed. In this work, the growth of single orthorhombic phase HZO thin films with decent ferroelectricity and resistive switching behavior is reported. With the aid of advanced structural characterization techniques, the HZO thin film is confirmed to be in the single orthorhombic phase. Next, using scanning probe microscopy techniques and macroscopic ferroelectric measurements, the single phase HZO thin films exhibit ferroelectric properties with a remanent polarization of about 20 µC cm −2 . Interestingly, the HZO thin film shows ferroelectric resistive switching with an R OFF / R ON ratio of about 16 100% with excellent device performance. Furthermore, brain‐like learning behavior is also observed in the HZO thin film. These results may serve to stimulate the study of ferroelectric properties of HZO thin films and their application in the electronic industry.