Al<sub>0.68</sub>Sc<sub>0.32</sub>N/SiC-Based Metal-Ferroelectric-Semiconductor Capacitors Operating up to 1000 °C
Yunfei He, David C. Moore, Yubo Wang, Spencer Ware, Shaobin Ma, Dhiren K. Pradhan, Zekun Hu, Xingyu Du, W. Joshua Kennedy, Nicholas R. Glavin, Roy H. Olsson, Deep Jariwala
Abstract
Ferroelectric (Fe) materials-based devices show great promise for nonvolatile memory applications, yet few demonstrate reliable operation at elevated temperatures. In this work, we demonstrate Ni/Al 0.68 Sc 0.32 N/4H-SiC metal-ferroelectric-semiconductor capacitors for high-temperature nonvolatile memory applications. Our 30 nm thick ferroelectric Al 0.68 Sc 0.32 N film grown on SiC exhibits stable and robust ferroelectric switching up to 1000 °C. The coercive field decreases linearly from −6.4/+11.9 MV cm –1 at room temperature to −3.1/+7.8 MV cm –1 at 800 °C, further reducing to −2.5 MV cm –1 at 1000 °C. At 600 °C, the devices achieve remarkable reliability with ∼2000 endurance cycles and over at least 100 h of retention with negligible polarization loss. At 800 °C, the devices retain data for at least 10,000 s and exceed 400 write cycles. Our results further highlight the potential for ferroelectric AlScN thin films particularly when paired with SiC semiconductor substrates for high-temperature nonvolatile memory.