Texture modulation of ferroelectric Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 thin films by engineering the polymorphism and texture of tungsten electrodes

This study proposes a novel approach to achieving highly reliable, low-voltage polarization switching of ferroelectric Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 (HZO) thin films using polymorph- and orientation-controlled W electrodes ((111)-textured a-W and (200)-textured b-W) by adjusting the sputtering conditions. We demonstrated the formation of (111) and (002)/(020)-textured HZO films on the (111)-textured a-W and (200)-textured b-W electrodes, respectively. Under a low-voltage pulse of 1.2 V (1.5 MV/cm), a-W/HZO/a-W and b-W/ HZO/b-W capacitors exhibited double-remanent polarization (2Pr) values of 29.23 mC/cm2 and 25.16 mC/ cm2, which were higher than that of the TiN/HZO/TiN capacitor by 33% and 14%, respectively, and a high endurance of 109 cycles without hard-breakdown. The differences in the ferroelectric properties and switching kinetics were understood based on the polymorphism and texture of the HZO films influenced by electrode materials. (c) 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of The Chinese Ceramic Society. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).