Improved polarization and endurance in ferroelectric HfZrO films on SrTiO(110)

• Published in: Nanoscale 2022-02, Vol.14 (6), p.2337-2343
• Main Authors: Song, Tingfeng, Tan, Huan, Estandía, Saúl, Gàzquez, Jaume, Gich, Martí, Dix, Nico, Fina, Ignasi, Sánchez, Florencio
• Format: Article
• ISSN: 2040-3364; 2040-3372
• DOI: 10.1039/d1nr06983g

The metastable orthorhombic phase of Hf 0.5 Zr 0.5 O 2 (HZO) can be stabilized in thin films on La 0.67 Sr 0.33 MnO 3 (LSMO) buffered (001)-oriented SrTiO 3 (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 × 10 10 cycles, and retention of more than 10 years. These results demonstrate that tuning the epitaxial growth of ferroelectric HfO 2 , here using STO(110) substrates, allows the improvement of functional properties of relevance for memory applications. With SrTiO 3 (110) substrates, the ferroelectric polarization of Hf 0.5 Zr 0.5 O 2 improved by 50%, with remanent polarization as high as 33 μC cm −2 in a film of less than 7 nm thickness.