Excellent ferroelectric Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 thin films with ultra-thin Al2O3 serving as capping layer
Bingwen Liu, Yating Cao, Wei Zhang, Yubao Li
Abstract
Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 (HZO) has become one of the most popular HfO2 based ferroelectric thin films due to its huge potential to integrate low-cost high-density nonvolatile ferroelectric memory. Most researchers sandwiched the HZO between metals, such as TiN, and then adopted post-deposition high temperature anneal to improve the ferroelectricity and reliability of the film. In this work, the effect of a thin dielectric Al2O3 layer with different thicknesses to replace a metallic capping layer on the ferroelectric properties of a HZO (10 nm) thin film is evaluated, and we also compared the effects of TiN and W bottom electrodes on the properties of a capacitor. The results showed that the TiN/Al2O3 (1 nm)/HZO/W capacitor performed the best with a maximum 2Pr as high as 31.4 μC/cm2 at an electric field of ±3 MV/cm and very low leakage currents. In addition, the fatigue studies demonstrated the capacitor's excellent endurance properties with continuous cycling up to 1010 cycles. The use of an ultra-thin Al2O3 layer with excellent capping effects would significantly simplify the integration process of HfO2-based ferroelectric memory.