Interfacial Layer Selection Methodology for Customized Ferroelectric Memories

This study presents a material selection strategy for the interfacial layer (IL) in ferroelectric (FE) memory stacks. The nucleation-limited switching (NLS) model was applied to analyze the switching kinetics of the metal/FE/insulator/metal (MFIM) structure, where Hf _{\text{0.5}} Zr _{\text{0.5}} O _{\text{2}} (HZO) was used as the FE. Activation field ( \textit{E}_{\textit{a}} ) and characteristic switching time ( \tau ) were extracted for various 1-nm-thick ILs, including those of SiO _{\text{2}} , La _{\text{2}} O _{\text{3}} (LaO), AlN, and Hf _{\text{3}} N _{\text{4}} (HfN). The adaptation of HZO/LaO reduced the \textit{E}_{\textit{a}} by \sim 44% in relation to that of HZO without an IL (MFM-HZO), resulting in considerably faster switching in the low-electric-field ( E ) region (