Mitigating wakeup effect and improving endurance of ferroelectric HfO₂-ZrO₂ thin films by careful La-doping

The crystalline structure and electrical response of La-doped HfO2-ZrO2 thin films of which processing temperature did not exceed 400 °C were examined, where the La-doping concentration was varied from zero to ≈2 mol. %. The film structure and associated properties were found to vary sensitively with the minute variation in the La-concentration, where the ferroelectric response at low La-concentration (<≈1 mol. %) gradually became antiferroelectric-like for La-concentration >≈1 mol. %, which was accompanied by a significant increase in dielectric permittivity. La-doping was found to be very effective in inhibiting the monoclinic phase formation and in decreasing the leakage current. Notably, the high coercive field, which was one of the most significant problems in this material system, could be decreased by ∼35% at the most promising La-concentration of 0.7 mol. %. As a result, a highly promising field cycling endurance up to 1011 cycles could be secured while maintaining a high remnant polarization value (≥25 μC/cm2). This is one of the best results in this field of the authors' knowledge.