Stabilizing the ferroelectric phase in doped hafnium oxide
The ferroelectric properties and crystal structure of doped HfO{sub 2} thin films were investigated for different thicknesses, electrode materials, and annealing conditions. Metal-ferroelectric-metal capacitors containing Gd:HfO{sub 2} showed no reduction of the polarization within the studied thickness range, in contrast to hafnia films with other dopants. A qualitative model describing the influence of basic process parameters on the crystal structure of HfO{sub 2} was proposed. The influence of different structural parameters on the field cycling behavior was examined. This revealed the wake-up effect in doped HfO{sub 2} to be dominated by interface induced effects, rather than a field induced phase transition. TaN electrodes were shown to considerably enhance the stabilization of the ferroelectric phase in HfO{sub 2} compared to TiN electrodes, yielding a P{sub r} of up to 35 μC/cm{sup 2}. This effect was attributed to the interface oxidation of the electrodes during annealing, resulting in a different density of oxygen vacancies in the Gd:HfO{sub 2} films. Ab initio simulations confirmed the influence of oxygen vacancies on the phase stability of ferroelectric HfO{sub 2}.