Correlation between ferroelectricity and ferroelectric orthorhombic phase of Hf x Zr 1-x O 2 thin films using synchrotron x-ray analysis
The change in the interplanar spacing ( d -spacing) including the ferroelectric orthorhombic (O) phase in the low-temperature fabricated Hf x Zr 1-x O 2 (HZO) films was studied using synchrotron grazing-incidence wide-angle x-ray scattering analysis. The 10-nm-thick HZO films were fabricated by thermal and plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (TH- and PE-ALD) methods using H 2 O gas and O 2 plasma as oxidants, respectively, and a post-metallization annealing (PMA) was performed at 300–400 °C. The d -spacing of the mixture of (111)-, (101)-, and (111)-planes of O, tetragonal (T), and cubic (C) phases, respectively, for the TH- and PE-ALD HZO films increased up to 2.99 Å with an increase in PMA temperature, while the d -spacing estimated by conventional x-ray diffraction was 2.92 Å regardless of the PMA temperature. The remanent polarization (2 P r = P r + - P r - ) of the HZO films increased as the PMA temperature increased. It is clear that the 2 P r value satisfied a linear relationship as a function of the d -spacing of O(111)/T(101)/C(111) phases. Furthermore, the wake-up effect was found to depend on the ferroelectric O phase formation. The wake-up effect was significantly reduced in both the TH- and PE-ALD HZO films after the PMA at 400 °C due to the increase in the ferroelectric O phase formation. The leakage current density ( J )–electric field properties of the PE-ALD HZO film with the lowest d -spacing were divided into three steps, such as low, middle, and large J values, in the wake-up (10 3 cycles), pristine (10 0 cycle), and fatigue (10 7 cycles) states, respectively. Therefore, an analysis of the ferroelectric O phase is very important for understanding the ferroelectricity including endurance.