Integration of lead-free ferroelectric on HfO2/Si (100) for high performance non-volatile memory applications

We introduce a novel lead-free ferroelectric thin film (1-x)BaTiO3-xBa(Cu1/3Nb2/3)O3 (x 5 0.025) (BT-BCN) integrated on to HfO2 buffered Si for non-volatile memory (NVM) applications. Piezoelectric force microscopy (PFM), x-ray diffraction, and high resolution transmission electron microscopy were employed to establish the ferroelectricity in BT-BCN thin films. PFMstudy reveals that the domains reversal occurs with 1806 phase change by applying external voltage, demonstrating its effectiveness forNVMdevice applications. X-ray photoelectron microscopy was used to investigate the band alignments between atomic layer deposited HfO2 and pulsed laser deposited BT-BCN films. Programming and erasing operations were explained on the basis of band-alignments. The structure offers large memory window, low leakage current, and high and low capacitance values that were easily distinguishable even after ,106 s, indicating strong charge storage potential. This study explains a new approach towards the realization of ferroelectric based memory devices integrated on Si platform and also opens up a new possibility to embed the system within current complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor processing technology.