Decoupling polarization and coercive field in AlScN/AlN/AlScN stack for enhanced performance in ferroelectric thin-film transistors

Kyung Do Kim, Seung Kyu Ryoo, Min Kyu Yeom, Suk Hyun Lee, Wonho Choi, Yunjae Kim, Jung-Hae Choi, Tianjiao Xin, Yan Cheng and Cheol Seong Hwang ()
Additional contact information
Kyung Do Kim: Seoul National University
Seung Kyu Ryoo: Seoul National University
Min Kyu Yeom: Seoul National University
Suk Hyun Lee: Seoul National University
Wonho Choi: Seoul National University
Yunjae Kim: Seoul National University
Jung-Hae Choi: Korea Institute of Science and Technology
Tianjiao Xin: East China Normal University
Yan Cheng: East China Normal University
Cheol Seong Hwang: Seoul National University

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract AlScN emerges as a promising material for ferroelectric field-effect transistors due to its high coercive field (>6 MV/cm). However, its high remanent polarization (>100 μC/cm2) can degrade memory window and retention, limiting its use in memory applications. This study introduces an AlScN/AlN/AlScN multi-layer designed to decouple the polarization and coercive field, thereby increasing the coercive field while maintaining polarization value. The AlN layer switches ferroelectrically in response to the AlScN layer’s switching, even though a single AlN layer is piezoelectric. The lower dielectric constant of AlN compared to AlScN increases the coercive field of the stack, while the AlScN layer primarily determines the polarization. This study shows that increasing the AlN ratio in the multi-layer significantly enhances the memory window and retention performance of ferroelectric thin-film transistors with amorphous indium-gallium-zinc-oxide channels. A maximum memory window of 15 V is achieved, enabling the development of a penta-level cell for next-generation storage.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-62904-6 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-62904-6

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-62904-6

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().