One Nanometer HfO2-Based Ferroelectric Tunnel Junctions on Silicon

In ferroelectric materials, spontaneous symmetry breaking leads to a switchable electric polarization, which offers significant promise for nonvolatile memories. In particular, ferroelectric tunnel junctions (FTJs) have emerged as a new resistive switching memory which exploits polarization-dependent tunnel current across a thin ferroelectric barrier. This work integrates FTJs with complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor-compatible Zr-doped HfO2 (Zr:HfO2) ferroelectric barriers of just 1 nm thickness, grown by atomic layer deposition on silicon. These 1 nm Zr:HfO2 tunnel junctions exhibit large polarization-driven electroresistance (>20 000%), the largest value reported for HfO2-based FTJs. In addition, due to just a 1 nm ferroelectric barrier, these junctions provide large tunneling current (>1 A cm(-2)) at low read voltage, orders of magnitude larger than reported thicker HfO2-based FTJs. Therefore, this proof-of-principle demonstration provides an approach to simultaneously overcome three major drawbacks of prototypical FTJs: a Si-compatible ultrathin ferroelectric, large electroresistance, and large read current for high-speed operation.

Automated summary

The study integrated FTJs with Zr-doped HfO2 ferroelectric barriers, grown by atomic layer deposition on silicon, to demonstrate the potential for large polarization-driven electroresistance and tunneling current. This combination overcomes the major drawbacks of prototypical FTJs, providing a Si-compatible ultrathin ferroelectric barrier with large electroresistance and read current for high-speed operation.