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SCIENTIFIC HIGHLIGHTS

Improved polarization and endurance in ferroelectric Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 films on SrTiO3(110)
01 March 2022
The metastable orthorhombic phase of Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 (HZO) can be stabilized in thin films on La0.67Sr0.33MnO3 (LSMO) buffered (001)-oriented SrTiO3 (STO) by intriguing epitaxy that results in (111)-HZO oriented growth and robust ferroelectric properties. Here, we show that the orthorhombic phase can also be epitaxially stabilized on LSMO/STO(110), presenting the same out-of-plane (111) orientation but a different distribution of the in-plane crystalline domains.
The remanent polarization of HZO films with a thickness of less than 7 nm on LSMO/STO(110) is 33 μC cm−3, which corresponds to a 50% improvement over equivalent films on LSMO/STO(001). Furthermore, HZO on LSMO/STO(110) presents higher endurance, switchable polarization is still observed up to 4 × 1010 cycles, and retention of more than 10 years. These results demonstrate that tuning the epitaxial growth of ferroelectric HfO2, here using STO(110) substrates, allows the improvement of functional properties of relevance for memory applications.
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Oxides for new-generation electronics

Improved polarization and endurance in ferroelectric Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 films on SrTiO3(110)


Tingfeng Song, Huan Tan, Saúl Estandía, Jaume Gàzquez, Martí Gich, Nico Dix, Ignasi Fina* and Florencio Sánchez*

Nanoscale, 2022,14, 2337-2343
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/D1NR06983G