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Unveiling the double-well energy landscape in a ferroelectric layer

Author

Listed:
  • Michael Hoffmann

    (NaMLab)

  • Franz P. G. Fengler

    (NaMLab)

  • Melanie Herzig

    (NaMLab)

  • Terence Mittmann

    (NaMLab)

  • Benjamin Max

    (Institute of Semiconductors and Microsystems, TU Dresden)

  • Uwe Schroeder

    (NaMLab)

  • Raluca Negrea

    (National Institute of Materials Physics)

  • Pintilie Lucian

    (National Institute of Materials Physics)

  • Stefan Slesazeck

    (NaMLab)

  • Thomas Mikolajick

    (NaMLab
    Institute of Semiconductors and Microsystems, TU Dresden)

Abstract

The properties of ferroelectric materials, which were discovered almost a century ago1, have led to a huge range of applications, such as digital information storage2, pyroelectric energy conversion3 and neuromorphic computing4,5. Recently, it was shown that ferroelectrics can have negative capacitance6–11, which could improve the energy efficiency of conventional electronics beyond fundamental limits12–14. In Landau–Ginzburg–Devonshire theory15–17, this negative capacitance is directly related to the double-well shape of the ferroelectric polarization–energy landscape, which was thought for more than 70 years to be inaccessible to experiments18. Here we report electrical measurements of the intrinsic double-well energy landscape in a thin layer of ferroelectric Hf0.5Zr0.5O2. To achieve this, we integrated the ferroelectric into a heterostructure capacitor with a second dielectric layer to prevent immediate screening of polarization charges during switching. These results show that negative capacitance has its origin in the energy barrier in a double-well landscape. Furthermore, we demonstrate that ferroelectric negative capacitance can be fast and hysteresis-free, which is important for prospective applications19. In addition, the Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 used in this work is currently the most industry-relevant ferroelectric material, because both HfO2 and ZrO2 thin films are already used in everyday electronics20. This could lead to fast adoption of negative capacitance effects in future products with markedly improved energy efficiency.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael Hoffmann & Franz P. G. Fengler & Melanie Herzig & Terence Mittmann & Benjamin Max & Uwe Schroeder & Raluca Negrea & Pintilie Lucian & Stefan Slesazeck & Thomas Mikolajick, 2019. "Unveiling the double-well energy landscape in a ferroelectric layer," Nature, Nature, vol. 565(7740), pages 464-467, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:565:y:2019:i:7740:d:10.1038_s41586-018-0854-z
    DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0854-z
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Simas, Fabiano C. & Nobrega, K.Z. & Bazeia, D., 2022. "Bifurcation and chaos in one dimensional chains of small particles," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    2. Michael Hoffmann & Zheng Wang & Nujhat Tasneem & Ahmad Zubair & Prasanna Venkatesan Ravindran & Mengkun Tian & Anthony Arthur Gaskell & Dina Triyoso & Steven Consiglio & Kandabara Tapily & Robert Clar, 2022. "Antiferroelectric negative capacitance from a structural phase transition in zirconia," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-8, December.
    3. Zhenyu Sun & Yueqi Su & Aomiao Zhi & Zhicheng Gao & Xu Han & Kang Wu & Lihong Bao & Yuan Huang & Youguo Shi & Xuedong Bai & Peng Cheng & Lan Chen & Kehui Wu & Xuezeng Tian & Changzheng Wu & Baojie Fen, 2024. "Evidence for multiferroicity in single-layer CuCrSe2," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-7, December.
    4. Yulong Huang & Jennifer L. Gottfried & Arpita Sarkar & Gengyi Zhang & Haiqing Lin & Shenqiang Ren, 2023. "Proton-controlled molecular ionic ferroelectrics," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-8, December.
    5. Yan Sun & Shuting Xu & Zheqi Xu & Jiamin Tian & Mengmeng Bai & Zhiying Qi & Yue Niu & Hein Htet Aung & Xiaolu Xiong & Junfeng Han & Cuicui Lu & Jianbo Yin & Sheng Wang & Qing Chen & Reshef Tenne & All, 2022. "Mesoscopic sliding ferroelectricity enabled photovoltaic random access memory for material-level artificial vision system," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-8, December.

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