2023/11/29 by Sebastian Calderon V, Calderon, Sebastian, Samantha T. Jaszewski +7
Engineering · Materials Science · #Anodic Oxide Films and Nanostructures #FOS: Physical sciences #Ferroelectric and Negative Capacitance Devices #Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) #Semiconductor materials and devices
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2311.17290
openalex publication_date 2023/11/29 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Nanoscale ferroelectrics that can be integrated into microelectronic fabrication processes are highly desirable for low-power computing and non-volatile memory devices. However, scalable novel ferroelectric materials, such as hafnium oxide (HfO2), remain in a state of development, and a clear understanding of the effects of relevant compositional and processing parameters to control their ferroelectric properties and the actual polarization switching mechanisms are still under investigation. One key fundamental knowledge gap is the polarization switching pathway in ferroelectric hafnia. To further our fundamental understanding of domain nucleation and switching, we have studied polarization switching pathways in HfO2-x thin films in real-time at the atomic scale using transmission electron microscopy. We employed differential phase contrast imaging that allows for the acquisition of both hafnium and oxygen atomic column signals and facilitates the observation of relative movement of atomic columns between both sublattices. Our results demonstrate that the switching pathway involves a transient tetragonal-like local structure, as oxygen ions shift in locations and remain within their parent hafnium polyhedra.