Insights into electrical characteristics of silicon doped hafnium oxide ferroelectric thin films

Silicon doped hafnium oxide thin films were recently discovered to exhibit ferroelectricity. In the present study, metal-ferroelectric-metal capacitors with Si:HfO2 thin films as ferroelectric material and TiN as electrodes have been characterized with respect to capacitance and current density as functions of temperature and applied voltage. Polarity asymmetry of the frequency dependent coercive field was explained by interfacial effects. No ferroelectric-paraelectric phase transition was observed at temperatures up to 478 K. Clear distinctions between current evolutions with or without polarization switching were correlated to the time competition between the measurement and the response of relaxation mechanisms. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3688915]