Emergent ferroelectricity in subnanometer binary oxide films on silicon
Abstract
The critical size limit of voltage-switchable electric dipoles has extensive implications for energy-efficient electronics, underlying the importance of ferroelectric order stabilized at reduced dimensionality. We report on the thickness-dependent antiferroelectric-to-ferroelectric phase transition in zirconium dioxide (ZrO 2 ) thin films on silicon. The emergent ferroelectricity and hysteretic polarization switching in ultrathin ZrO 2 , conventionally a paraelectric material, notably persists down to a film thickness of 5 angstroms, the fluorite-structure unit-cell size. This approach to exploit three-dimensional centrosymmetric materials deposited down to the two-dimensional thickness limit, particularly within this model fluorite-structure system that possesses unconventional ferroelectric size effects, offers substantial promise for electronics, demonstrated by proof-of-principle atomic-scale nonvolatile ferroelectric memory on silicon. Additionally, it is also indicative of hidden electronic phenomena that are achievable across a wide class of simple binary materials.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- May 06, 2022
- Source ID
- 10.1126/science.abm8642
Entities
People
- Cheng-Hsiang Hsu
- Costas P Grigoropoulos
- Jim Ciston
- John W Freeland
- Nirmaan Shanker
- Padraic Shafer
- Sayeef Salahuddin
- Shang-Lin Hsu
- Suraj Cheema
- Vladimir Stoica
- Yoonsoo Rho
- Zhan Zhang
Organizations
- Advanced Light Source
- Argonne National Laboratory
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
- Pennsylvania State University
- University of California