Ferroelectricity in Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 Thin Films: A Microscopic Study of the

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Ferroelectricity in Hf Zr O thin films: a microscopic study of the polarization switching phenomenon and field-induced phase transformations Anastasia A Chouprik, Sergey Zakharchenko, Maxim Spiridonov, Sergei Zarubin, Anna Chernikova, Roman Kirtaev, Pratyush Buragohain, Alexei Gruverman, Andrei Zenkevich, and Dmitrii Negrov ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, Just Accepted Manuscript • DOI: 10.1021/acsami.7b17482 • Publication Date (Web): 21 Feb 2018 Downloaded from http://pubs.acs.org on February 21, 2018

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ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces

Ferroelectricity in Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 thin films: a microscopic study of the polarization switching phenomenon and field-induced phase transformations Anastasia Chouprika*, Sergey Zakharchenkoa, Maxim Spiridonova, Sergei Zarubina, Anna Chernikovaa, Roman Kirtaeva, Pratyush Buragohainb, Alexei Gruverman,b,a, Andrei Zenkevicha and Dmitrii Negrova a

Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, 9 Institutskiy lane, Dolgoprudny, Moscow region, 141700, Russia

b

Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 68588, USA

KEYWORDS: hafnium oxide, ferroelectric switching, domain structure, polycrystalline ferroelectric films, piezoresponse force microscopy

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Abstract Because of their full compatibility with the modern Si based technology, the HfO2-based ferroelectric films have recently emerged as viable candidates for application in nonvolatile memory devices. However, despite significant efforts, the mechanism of the polarization switching in this material is still under debate. In this work, we elucidate the microscopic nature of the polarization switching process in functional Hf0.5Zr0.5O2-based ferroelectric capacitors during its operation. In particular, the static domain structure and its switching dynamics following the application of the external electric field have been monitored with the advanced piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) technique providing a nm resolution. Separate domains with strong built-in electric field have been found. Piezoresponse mapping of pristine Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 films revealed the mixture of polar phase grains and regions with low piezoresponse as well as the continuum of polarization orientations in the grains of polar orthorhombic phase. PFM data combined with the structural analysis of pristine versus trained film by plan-view transmission electron microscopy both speak in support of a monoclinic-to-orthorhombic phase transition in ferroelectric Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 layer during the wake-up process under an electrical stress. Introduction Few years ago, ferroelectric (FE) properties have been discovered in polycrystalline HfO2 thin (~10 nm) films, when doped with La, Si, Zr, Y, Al, or Gd.1-10,16,19 Well before that, the HfO2 films were already used in modern CMOS and other microelectronics processes as a high-k gate material.11 It is therefore appealing to use HfO2-based FE materials in non-volatile memory devices, such as 1T-1C ferroelectric random-access memory (FeRAM) or flash-like ferroelectric field-effect transistors (FeFETs). Both theoretical12,13 and experimental14-19 studies ascribe the ferroelectricity in polycrystalline HfO2-based thin films to the presence of a


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metastable non-centrosymmetric orthorhombic HfO2 phase (space group Pbc21), which crystallizes during the annealing of doped HfO2 thin films. Alternatively, it has been demonstrated that alloyed FE-Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 (HZO) films with remnant polarization of Pr ~ 15 µC/cm2 can be produced during the growth of the TiN top electrode by thermal ALD at T = 400 oC, without any post-deposition annealing.17 It is worth to note that the temperature required to crystallize HZO in the FE phase is significantly lower as compared to the doped hafnium oxide, and from the FeRAM fabrication viewpoint this property of FE-HZO films is advantageous. Despite the high interest in FE-HfO2 and prototype memory devices based on it, the exact mechanism of the polarization switching in this material is still not fully understood. The transformation of domain structure in HZO films during ac electric cycling of the FE capacitor (training process, also called “wake-up” effect14,16,18-23) is also debated. It is well established that in the HfO2-based FE films, electric field cycling leads to the increase in the Pr value.21 Several mechanisms have been suggested previously to explain the origin of such effect. In particular, Zhou et al14 suggested that the wake-up effect originates from the depinning of domains due to the reduction of the defect concentration near the TiN electrode. Alternatively, based on the transmission electron microscopy study, Grimley et al19, Pešić et al16, and Martin et al18 attributed the wake-up effect to the phase transition from the monoclinic to orthorhombic phase, while Lomenzo et al23 suggested the tetragonal to orthorhombic phase transition as the origin of the wake-up effect based on the concurrent increase in Pr and the decrease in the dielectric constant. To elucidate the polarization switching dynamics and domain structure transformations in ferroelectric following its electrical cycling, it is important to use a visualization tool providing


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a nm resolution. The inhomogeneity of FE properties in polycrystalline hafnia films is associated with the built-in electric fields due to the charged defects both in the bulk and at the interface.16, 19-22 In order to analyze the evolution of such built-in electric fields as well as the coercive voltage during wake-up effect, the first-order reversal curves (FORCs) technique has been utilized previously.16,19,22,24 Phenomenological models of the wake-up process based on the FORC results22,16 assume that the pristine FE-HfO2 films are characterized by the presence of domains with opposite built-in fields. As shown by Schenk et al22 and Pešić et al16, the ac cycling leads to the disappearance of these built-in fields, which is explained by the redistribution of the trapped charges. Since the FORC technique provides information only about built-in fields averaged across the structure, the proposed models do not provide an insight into the local switching behavior and should be verified by the direct microscopic studies of the domain structure dynamics upon application of the external voltage. Since ferroelectricity in FE-HfO2 films strongly depends on interfaces with electrodes7,19,25, the microscopic study of bare films would be of small value. In order to reveal actual local ferroelectric properties, it is important to perform the study of functional capacitors comprising FE-HfO2. In this work, we correlate the information on the domain maps (local piezoresponse) of the HZO film with the structural study by the transmission electron microscopy to explain the wakeup effect in the HZO film. Further, we observe the domain structure evolution to elucidate the microscopic nature of polarization reversal in functional Hf0.5Zr0.5O2-based ferroelectric capacitors during its operation. Results and discussion The 10-nm-thick HZO films with 18-nm-thick top and bottom TiN electrodes were grown by atomic layer deposition (ALD) technique on the Si substrate as described in detail elsewhere14


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(see also the supplementary file, section S1). Crystallization of the as-grown HZO films in the orthorhombic ferroelectric, along with the stable monoclinic, phases occurred during the ALD growth of the top electrode at T = 400 oC. To allow external electric biasing of the samples, the functional ferroelectric capacitor devices 100x100 μm2 were patterned on the Si chip with contact pads (details of the device fabrication are described in the Supporting Information, section S1). The schematic view of the samples used for the microscopic study of the polarization switching dynamics by the piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) technique is shown in Figure 1.


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Figure 1. Schematic view of TiN/HZO/TiN capacitor structures used for the microscopic study of the polarization switching dynamics by the PFM: (a) Scheme of electrical wiring and connecting, (b) Zoomed view of patterned top TiN electrode upon scanning. To wake-up pristine ferroelectric capacitors, they were cycled 104 times by applying voltage rectangular pulses with ±3 V amplitude and 100 µs duration with the pulse generator. Further, we call these capacitors as trained. The structural properties of pristine versus electrically cycled HZO films in capacitors were investigated by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The selected-area electron diffraction (SAED) patterns of TiN/HZO/TiN stack cross-sections prepared by focused ion beam were acquired to elucidate possible structural changes (for details, see section S2). SAED patterns of TiN/HZO/TiN structures are shown in Figure 2 and confirm the polycrystalline structure of both pristine and trained HZO film. The diffraction rings from polycrystalline TiN layers as well as point reflexes from the monocrystalline Si substrate were used for precise calibration. The presence of hardly distinguishable polycrystalline tetragonal (t) and orthorhombic (o) phases is evident in both the pristine and trained structures. However, the important difference is that the reflections on SAED pattern marked as m111 and m111 in Figure 2a, which can be unambiguously ascribed to the monoclinic (m) phase, are observed only in the pristine structure. We, therefore, conclude that the monoclinic phase is fully converted in o-and/or t-phase following the electrical cycling.


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Figure 2. SAED patterns of cross-section samples: a) pristine TiN/HZO/TiN structure; b) trained TiN/HZO/TiN structure. m, t, o — monoclinic (space group P21/c), tetragonal (P42/nmc) and orthorhombic (Pbc21) ZrO2 phases respectively. The most intense monoclinic phase reflections,

111 and 111 , are absent in the SAED pattern of trained structure. It should be noted, that rings marked as “TiN” and “Pt” can also contain various reflections of m-, t-, o-phases of HZO (both Pt and TiN layers are left to protect HZO layer during sample preparation with the ion beam milling). The obtained results on the field-induced structural transformations corroborate the previously published comprehensive studies of Si-doped HfO2 by Martin et al18, Richter et al25 and Gddoped HfO2 by Pešic et al16 and Grimley et al.19 The prepared ferroelectric capacitor devices on the Si chip were subjected to standard electrical characterization prior to PFM measurements. Pulsed switching measurements of TiN/HZO/TiN samples were performed using PUND (Positive Up Negative Down) technique26,27 with triangular voltage sweeps17, which allows to separate a current signal


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associated with the polarization reversal from the normal non-hysteretic displacement current (Supporting Information, section S3). The sweep rate was 2 ⋅104 V/s. Figure 3a shows I-V curves for trained TiN/HZO/TiN capacitors measured by the PUND method during “positive” (P) and “negative” (N) pulses (Supporting Information, section S3). By integrating the switching current, one gets the value of remnant polarization Pr ~ 17 µC/cm2. P-V curves derived from PUND data are shown in Figure 3b.

Figure 3. (a) Switching P and N I-V curves taken from TiN/HZO/TiN capacitor (capacitive U-

and D-currents are not shown), in inset the contribution of domains with preferred ”up” and “down” polarizations to the I-V curve is sketched; (b) P-V hysteresis curves derived from PUND measurements. “Relaxed” I-V curves measured during the first PUND voltage train are shifted with respect to “non-relaxed” I-V curves measured during further cycling irrespective of the polarity of the first


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pulse (Figure 3a). By “non-relaxed” I-V curves we mean those obtained at further electric field cycling with the second and subsequent PUND voltage trains (Supporting Information, section S3). The possible reason for such shift is the relaxation of trapped charges in the polycrystalline HZO layer during some time after the application of PUND voltage pulses, which affects the internal electric field, and thereby changes the coercive field. We call the devices with no biasing for more than 1 sec “relaxed” capacitors. During consecutive electric field cycling, traps are equally filled and appropriate “non-relaxed” I-V curves all coincide with each other. Another possible reason of a relaxation is depolarization of HZO layer induced by unscreened ferroelectric field due to the presence of an isolating dead layer at HZO/TiN interfaces28. The coercive voltages for “relaxed” capacitors are more suitable for comparison with the PFM data. The mean coercive voltage for the “relaxed” capacitors for up and down polarizations were found to be −1.45 V and 1.30 V, respectively. To get further insight into the ferroelectric properties of the HZO films and exclude the effect of interfacial electrochemical mechanisms, PFM experiments were carried out on the patterned capacitors wired to the contact pads. In these experiments, the 100x100 µm2 top electrode pads (Figure 1b) were grounded, whereas the bottom electrode was biased (Figure 1a). This excitation scheme ensures zero potential between the grounded AFM probe and the sample and eliminates the electrostatic forces between the sample surface and the AFM tip. The described scheme also ensures that electrical stimulus does not depend on the quality of probe-sample contact and on the probe position. This helps to avoid misinterpretation and uncertainty in the analysis29-31 of the properties of new materials, such as hafnium oxide based ferroelectrics. In particular, all contributions to the background associated with the probe-sample interaction are excluded. It should be noted that the minimal distinguishable size of a domain is defined by the thickness of


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the top TiN electrode.32 Piezoresponse mapping of pristine and trained TiN/HZO/TiN structure was performed by resonance-enhanced dual ac amplitude resonance tracking (DART) PFM and combined with band-excitation (BE) PFM33,34 and atomic force acoustic microscopy (BE AFAM) techniques, both in off-field mode. The choice is dictated by the characteristic features of these techniques. BE PFM allows to acquire full spectra of piezoresponse at each point of scan. For sufficiently large vector averaging of acquired spectra, the possible contribution of AFM background in piezoresponse spectra can be detected. The fitting of the acquired spectra was performed by the model of harmonic oscillator with additional shift linearly dependent on the frequency (Supporting Information, section S4.1.3). The last contribution is intended to compensate for a possible AFM background and ultimately allows to obtain most accurate values of piezoresponse amplitude and phase. The additional accuracy of measuring piezoresponse amplitude is achieved by eliminating the effect of local contact stiffness, that is the topographical crosstalk, by normalizing the measured piezoresponse to the pure contact mechanical response (Supporting information, section S4.1.4). All these precautions are non-excess when studying properties of rather new materials such as hafnium oxide based ferroelectrics. For the reasons described above, the combined BE PFM/AFAM technique was chosen for most of the measurements. The only disadvantage of BE PFM is slow scanning speed due to a prolonged averaging of acquired piezoresponse spectra in each point of the scan. This is necessary due to the spreading of the exciting voltage power along multiple frequency harmonics of the spectrum, which results in a weak absolute piezoresponse. Therefore, for the study of materials with weak piezoelectric properties an extremely prolonged scanning is required and the drift of the sample in a non-ideal thermostatic box becomes critical. This problem can be overcome by DART PFM technique, in


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which the exciting voltage power is concentrated in just two frequency harmonics and there is no need for high averaging. For this reason, we used DART PFM to analyze pristine TiN/HZO/TiN structure. In general, the elimination of the topographical crosstalk by the combined BE PFM/AFAM technique increases the accuracy of analysis of the PFM data. However, most qualitative conclusions, such as the consequences of wake-up process, can be drawn by PFM analysis alone. For piezoresponse mapping of pristine TiN/HZO/TiN structure, we used DART PFM technique implemented in commercially available AFM MFP-3D (Asylum Research). The driving voltage frequency was about 340 kHz and the amplitude 0.6 V. The comparison between the amplitude and phase maps (Fig. 4b, c) reveals that there are regions of two types in pristine HZO film: i) isolated regions with a high amplitude and binary PFM phase, ii) surrounding regions with an almost zero amplitude and noisy phase. The former regions are likely due to the grains of polar o-phase with high vertical component and both orientations of polarization vector, while latter ones can be associated with non-piezoelectric phases or, at least, those with lower piezomodule d33. We can assume that these passive phases can be associated with nonpolar mphase as well as with t-phase and misaligned o-phase. Areas with a nonzero piezoresponse have a continuum of amplitude values (Figure 4b) and binary PFM phase (Figure 4c), thus revealing the continuum of polarization orientations in ophase grains of the pristine film.


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Figure 4. Piezoresponse maps: (a), (d) TiN surface morphology, (b), (e) PFM amplitude map,

(c), (f) PFM phase map for pristine HZO capacitor and the same after single voltage pulse -3 V, respectively. Further, the single voltage pulse with amplitude -3 V and duration 400 µs was applied and piezoresponse mapping with the same excitation and data acquisition settings was performed. The amplitude map (Fig. 4e) reveals the significant increase of piezoresponse all over the area accompanying by a lock-in overload at some regions. The phase map (Fig. 4f) demonstrates that the structure is fully downward polarized. Artifacts at the amplitude map due to a lock-in overload do not allow to perform careful analysis of data, but both the polarization reversal in ferroelectric regions and the transition of nonpolar regions in ferroelectric phase during the very first voltage pulse are visible unambiguously. Details of the cycle-by-cycle evolution of the HZO domain structure during wake-up process will be reported elsewhere. However, the significant increase of piezoresponse even after application the single voltage pulse is evident. Therefore,


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PFM data reveal the presence of mixture of polar and non-piezoelectric phases in as prepared polycrystalline HZO film thus corroborating TEM analysis. A microscopic study of polarization reversal was performed for trained functional HZO capacitors which ferroelectric properties remain stable during further cycling. Detailed analysis of domain structure of the trained HZO film and its evolution was performed by the resonanceenhanced combined band-excitation (BE) PFM and atomic force acoustic microscopy (BE AFAM) techniques which is home-implemented in commercially available AFM Ntegra (NTMDT) using digital signal processor with wide-band voltage generator, analog to digital and digital to analog frontends (Nanoscan Technologies) (details of implementation of BE techniques are described in the Supporting information, S4). The following parameters were used: the central frequency near the contact resonance frequency ~670 kHz, the bandwidth 97.7 kHz with 1000 frequency bins, the peak-to-peak value of exciting voltage is 1.0 V and 6 mV in BE PFM and BE AFAM, respectively. Amplitude and phase of PFM and AFAM response in each point of scan were determined from fitting experimental data with vector fitting technique (Supporting information, S4.1.3).


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Figure 5. Static domain structure of trained HZO film at the intermediate state of capacitor (-1.4

V) and mechanical contact response maps: (a) TiN surface morphology; (b) amplitude-frequency characteristics corresponding to points 1, 2, 3 in (e); (c) BE PFM phase hysteresis loop; maps: (d) BE PFM amplitude, (e) BE PFM phase, (f) BE PFM parameter Q, g) BE AFAM amplitude, (h) BE AFAM phase, (i) BE PFM contact resonance frequency, (j) normalized BE PFM/AFAM amplitude, (k) normalized BE PFM/AFAM phase, (l) overlapping of normalized BE PFM/AFAM amplitude and phase. An amplitude is measured in arbitrary units, a phase in radians. Comparing the BE PFM (Figures 5d, 5e, 5f), BE AFAM maps (Figures 5g, 5h) and TiN surface morphology (Figures 5a) for trained HZO capacitors at the intermediate state (after single voltage pulse -1.4 V, 100 ms), we conclude that it is the topography that mainly contributes to the BE AFAM amplitude and phase maps. Variations of the contact area on the


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topographic hills and pits during scanning result in the contact resonance frequency variations (Figures 5i). Due to inclination of the cantilever to the horizontal plane, there are different local contact areas on the different slopes of TiN crystallites depending on orientation of tip axis with respect to the local surface. This also affects the local contact resonance frequency, the resonance amplitude and phase. The continuum distribution of the phase values in the BE AFAM (in the range from 70o to 120o) is much narrower than the phase difference in the BE PFM (Figures 5h, 5e). Therefore, topography cannot have a significant effect on the visualization of the piezoresponse phase. Subtraction of the BE AFAM phase from a BE PFM phase during normalization of the complex amplitudes results in the shift of the phase on the normalized maps (Figure 5k). In general, the BE PFM amplitude may contain information not only about the domain structure, but about the TiN topography as well (Supporting Information, section S4.1.4). Analysis of the phase map (Figure 5e) and map of parameter Q (Figure 5f) allows us to separate the domain walls from the TiN crystallite boundaries. Parameter Q were determined during fitting of spectra and characterize the width of the contact resonance spectra (Supporting Information, section S4.1.3). For well-defined piezoresponse spectra (points 1, 2 in Figure 5b) the parameter Q is associated with a dissipation of cantilever oscillation and called the quality factor. In case of contact resonance, a dissipation should depends on local mechanical properties (viscosity or Young’s modulus) and the local topography and determines resonance enhancement of local piesoresponse by cantilever. Due to opposite strains on domain boundaries, there is a very weak piezoresponse (below noise level) in point 3 in Figure 5b. In this case, the fitting of a predominately noisy (background) spectrum by a spike-like sharp Lorenz curve results in extremely high values of Q, which appears as white edges on the map of parameter Q along the


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domain walls. Therefore, map of parameter Q helps to visually separate the domain walls from the TiN crystallite boundaries. In addition, in BE PFM on domain boundaries a fitting amplitude spike locates near central frequency but do not corresponds actual contact resonance frequency (Figure 5b). As a result, appropriate edges on BE PFM contact resonance frequency map are distinguishable (Figure 5i), while they are not on the BE AFAM contact resonance frequency map (Figure S5b in Supporting Information) that is almost identical to obtained in BE PFM in the rest. The identity of the contact resonance frequency maps confirms the absence of electrostatic contributions in our experiment and the presence of the topographic crosstalk in BE PFM data. Normalization of complex BE PFM amplitudes on BE AFAM ones allows to eliminate topography contribution (Figure 5j) and clearly visualize domains in amplitude map. By overlapping phase and amplitude maps, one can associate vibrating areas with polarization orientation (Figure 5l). Piezoresponse hysteresis loops measured by band excitation technique in an arbitrary point of the area confirms ferroelectric nature of the TiN/HZO/TiN structures (Figure 5c). The domain structure dynamics of the trained TiN/HZO/TiN ferroelectric capacitors was studied by piezoresponse mapping after the application of bias voltage pulse (Figure 6). One should take into account the drift of the sample during scanning, resulting in some distortion of the obtained maps. The switching by the voltage pulses of +3 V (-3 V) drives the polarization of HZO layer to the up (down) direction (Figures 6a, 6g). A gradual change in the ratio of the areas occupied by the opposite domains is observed (Figure 6n). Equal areas are observed upon the approximated values of the voltage pulses ~−1.47 V and ~+1.35 V, which is very close to the coercive voltages of the relaxed structure measured by PUND (Figure 3). At the first glance, the difference from PUND results is that the visual BE PFM/AFAM phase changes start upon


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voltage pulses of −1.3 V and 1.2 V (Figures 6b, 6h) corresponding to the near-middle of the coercive voltages range revealed by PUND. However, the amplitude changes occur at lower voltages. For example, on the amplitude maps on Figures 6b, 6c, 6h dark areas (marked by black arrows) became visible although the BE PFM/AFAM phase did not change. BE PFM/AFAM phase switching occurs upon later voltage pulses (Figures 6c, 6i). This is due to the fact that vertical and lateral sizes of the seed of the opposite domain remains smaller compared to the neighboring large domains. In this case, BE PFM/AFAM phase of the vibrations is caused by neighbors, while BE PFM/AFAM amplitude senses the emergence of the seed.35


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Figure 6. The domain structure dynamics of the trained TiN/HZO/TiN structure: a-m) after

application of voltage pulse with different amplitude (blue arrows indicate sequence of voltage pulse applied in accordance with Figure S6); n) ratio of the areas occupied by the domains with


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opposite polarization direction; o) maximal normalized BE PFM amplitude. Black arrows indicate the location of domain seeds with the opposite direction of the polarization vector; white dashed and dotted lines indicate the localization of domains with preferred “up” and “down” polarization, respectively. Amplitude and phase scale bars are common to all maps. BE PFM/AFAM maps in Figure 6 do not contain any regions without piezoresponse. Local decreases in the piezoresponse signal on the fully polarized HZO film (Figures 6a, 6g) can be associated with o-phase seeds with opposite polarization vector direction, horizontally oriented domains, antiferroelectric t-phase grains and passive m-phase grains less than 100 nm in size. In the FE capacitor due to mechanical coupling, electromechanical response with the same PFM phase should be registered on such regions. Another reason of the inhomogeneity of the amplitude is the process of the nucleation of domains with the opposite direction of the polarization vector, which becomes visible in the phase in Figures 6b, 6h, 6i. When comparing these data with the PFM data for pristine structures in Figure 4, it is evident that during the wake-up process the amount of the non-ferroelectric phase decreased dramatically. Taking into account TEM analysis in Figure 2, we conclude that during the wake-up of the TiN/HZO/TiN capacitors, the m- and t-phases undergo almost complete phase transition to the ferroelectric ophase. The same effect was revealed by TEM for Si:HfO216,25 and Gd:HfO216,19. The maximum polarization in the HZO orthorhombic phase predicted from the DFT calculations is Pr ~ 50 µC/cm2.12 Assuming a dispersion in the orientations of the polarization vector from the perpendicular direction, the difference between the maximum and the experimentally obtained polarization value of Pr ~ 17 µC/cm2 is reasonable. Further, it should be noted that the maximal normalized BE PFM/AFAM amplitude is higher for the fully polarized HZO film (Figure 6o). Smaller amplitude for the intermediate domain


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structures is associated with the sum of the local electromechanical responses of small antiparallel domains. One should keep in mind, that the passive 18-nm thick top TiN layer also increases this mechanical coupling. The maximal normalized PFM amplitude did not reach saturation, especially with positive switching pulses. This means that the polarization reversal process did not end. There are a significant number of domain residues with downward polarization. The minimum of the curves is achieved at the coercive voltage with an accuracy of 0.1 V, which corresponds to an equal number of domains and strongest mechanical coupling. Thus, for upward polarization, the coercive voltage is lower and simultaneously the built-in fields that prevent the polarization reversal are larger. In addition, maps of the normalized amplitude for the fully polarized HZO film (Figure 6a,g) are non-uniform despite the in-phase and antiphase piezoresponse all over the area. It could be associated with domain residues mechanically coupled with neighbouring domains, small grains of the nonpolar phase, misaligned o-phase grains and the variation of the order parameter of o-phase in- and out-ofplane of the sample. Recently, it has been shown36,37 that at the o→t→o phase transition in the FE-HfO2 films can occur during each switching cycle. We do not see any regions without a relatively strong piezoresponse signal on the BE PFM/AFAM maps of the intermediate domain structures. However, the texture of the amplitude maps is smooth (not binary), for example, in the middle of the domain the amplitude is higher than on the periphery. This can be explained both by the mechanical coupling with neighboring domains of opposite polarity and by the o→t→o phase transition that gradually moves from the center of the “domain” to its periphery. Considering the enhancement of the mechanical coupling between domains by the passive top TiN layer, we are inclined to consider that the switching process proceeds in a conventional way, i.e. like in other


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ferroelectrics the polarization reversal in the o-phase grains is due to the nucleation and growth of seeds with the opposite polarization. The o→t→o phase transition in the HZO film during each switching cycle at domain walls is possible but cannot be detected if the intermediate tphase is unstable in PFM excitation field. The revealed domain structure dynamics shows that the local built-in electric fields in HZO films are still present after wake-up by 104 cycles. This fact is illustrated by the domains with preferred ”up” and “down” polarizations, which are marked by dashed and dotted lines, respectively, in Figure 6. These domains asymmetrically contribute to the repolarization current peak (inset in Figure 3a) and increase the range of the coercive voltage. The picture revealed via microscopic domain structure dynamics study corroborates the FORC data describing the wakeup process.16,19,22 Indeed, it was found by the FORC technique that the cycling leads to the disappearance of built-in fields, presumably associated with two types of domains. The microscopic study of domain structure dynamics allowed to find domain residues responsible for remnant built-in fields in trained structures.

Conclusions

The static domain structure in thin (10 nm) ferroelectric polycrystalline HZO layer in functional ferroelectric capacitors was studied by the combined BE PFM/AFAM technique. By normalizing the BE PFM data to the mechanical contact response simultaneously measured by the BE AFAM, we have found that the effect of the polycrystalline surface morphology of the TiN/HZO/TiN ferroelectric capacitor on the domain mapping is weak. The total area of trained HZO film with Pr = 17 µC/cm2 takes part in polarization reversal. The domain structure evolution following the applied voltage during capacitor operation has been elucidated. It was


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found that the reversal of the polarization vector in the polar o-phase occurs by the nucleation and growth of the opposite polarization domains. Equal ratio of domains with opposite direction of the polarization vector is observed upon the averaged values of the switching voltage pulses ~−1.47 V and ~+1.35 V, which is very close to the coercive voltages of the relaxed structure measured by PUND. The presence of the domains with strong built-in electric fields has been directly revealed by PFM. In the pristine HZO films it was found the mixture of polar phase grains with random polarization orientations and regions with low piezoresponse. During very first voltage pulse, both the transition of whole passive area in ferroelectric phase with specific polarization orientation and the polarization reversal in polar phase grains occur. The PFM results along with TEM analysis for the pristine vs. trained TiN/HZO/TiN ferroelectric capacitors indicate the electrically stimulated m→o phase transition during the wake-up process.

ASSOCIATED CONTENT Supporting Information. Additional information and figures related to the growth and

characterization of the ferroelectric TiN/Hf0.5Zr0.5O2/TiN devices, as well as the full description of the combined BE PFM/AFAM technique are presented in the supporting information file (PDF). Corresponding Author *

E-mail address of the corresponding author: [email protected]

Author Contributions

The manuscript was written through contributions of all authors. All authors have given approval to the final version of the manuscript.


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ACKNOWLEDGMENT This work was performed using equipment of MIPT Shared Facilities Center with financial support from the Russian Foundation for Advanced Research Projects and the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation (Grant No. RFMEFI59417X0014). The ALD growth was supported by Russian Science Foundation (Project. No 14-19-01645-P). Work at the UNL was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) through Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) under Grant DMR-1420645. A.G. also acknowledges the support by the Center for Nanoferroic Devices (CNFD), a Semiconductor Research Corporation Nanoelectronics Research Initiative (SRC-NRI) under Task ID 2398.002, sponsored by NIST and the Nanoelectronics Research Corporation (NERC). ABBREVIATIONS HZO, Hf0.5Zr0.5O2; ALD, atomic layer deposition; BE PFM, band-excitation piezoresponse force microscopy; BE AFAM, band-excitation atomic force acoustic microscopy; FE, ferroelectric; FeFET, ferroelectric field-effect transistors; CMOS, complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor; HZO, Hf0.5Zr0.5O2; TEM, transmission electron microscopy, SAED, selected-area electron diffraction: PUND, Positive Up Negative Down REFERENCES (1)

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TABLE OF CONTENTS GRAPHIC


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Ferroelectricity in Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 Thin Films: A Microscopic Study of the

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