Bilayer-Based Antiferroelectric HfZrO2 Tunneling Junction With High Tunneling Electroresistance and Multilevel Nonvolatile Memory

The bilayer-based Antiferroelectric Tunneling Junction (AFTJ) with ferroelectric (FE) HfZrO₂ (HZO) and dielectric (DE) Al₂O₃ demonstrates a current ratio of $> 100\times $ , a TER (tunneling electroresistance) of $> 50\times $ , multilevel states, $> 10^{4}$ sec retention, and a cycling endurance as high as 10⁸. The concept of tunneling current through DE in an antiferroelectric (AFE) system enhances the capacity to modulate the current/TER ratio and makes the AFTJ feasible for low-power crossbar eNVM (embedded nonvolatile memory) applications.