The Doping Effect on the Intrinsic Ferroelectricity in Hafnium Oxide-Based Nano-Ferroelectric Devices

Abstract

Hafnium oxide (HfO₂)-based ferroelectric tunnel junctions (FTJs) have been extensively evaluated for high-speed and low-power memory applications. Herein, we investigated the influence of Al content in HfAlO thin films on the ferroelectric characteristics of HfAlO-based FTJs. Among HfAlO devices with different Hf/Al ratios (20:1, 34:1, and 50:1), the HfAlO device with Hf/Al ratio of 34:1 exhibited the highest remanent polarization and excellent memory characteristics and, thereby, the best ferroelectricity among the investigated devices. Furthermore, first-principal analyses verified that HfAlO thin films with Hf/Al ratio of 34:1 promoted the formation of the orthorhombic phase against the paraelectric phase as well as alumina impurities and, thus, enhanced the ferroelectricity of the device, providing theoretical support for supporting experimental results. The findings of this study provide insights for developing HfAlO-based FTJs for next-generation in-memory computing applications.