Impact of different dopants on the switching properties of ferroelectric hafniumoxide

The wake-up behavior of ferroelectric thin film capacitors based on doped hafnium oxide dielectrics in TiN-based metal–insulator–metal structures is reported. After field cycling a remanent polarization up to 40 µC/cm2 and a high coercive field of about 1 MV/cm was observed. Doping of HfO2 by different dopants with a crystal radius ranging from 54 pm (Si) to 132 pm (Sr) was evaluated. In all cases, an improved polarization–voltage hysteresis after wake-up cycling is visible. For smaller dopant atoms like Si and Al stronger pinching of the polarization hysteresis appeared with increasing dopant concentration and proved to be stable during cycling.