Impact of Hf Doping on Half-Loop Operations of ZrO₂-Based Antiferroelectric Thin Films

In this work, we have investigated the impact of Hf doping on half-loop operations of ZrO2-based antiferroelectric (AFE) thin films. AFE capacitors with 6 nm HfxZr1-xO2 (HZO) (x = 0, 0.1, and 0.2) and asymmetric electrodes are fabricated and characterized. The results indicate that AFE capacitors with Hf0.1Zr0.9O2 show the best performance of half-loop operations for embedded nonvolatile memory (eNVM) applications, including high double remnant polarization (2Pr) of ~17 μC/cm2 at operating voltage (Vop) of 1.2 V, high endurance (>1010 cycles), and long data retention (>104 s at 85 ∘C). The excellent performance of AFE Hf0.1Zr0.9O2 capacitors results from the well-tuned internal bias and stable AFE phase by optimized Hf doping.