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The Rayleigh law in silicon doped hafnium oxide ferroelectric thin films
Author(s) -
Guan Yan,
Zhou Dayu,
Xu Jin,
Liu Xiaohua,
Cao Fei,
Dong Xianlin,
Müller Johannes,
Schenk Tony,
Schroeder Uwe
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
physica status solidi (rrl) – rapid research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.786
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1862-6270
pISSN - 1862-6254
DOI - 10.1002/pssr.201510270
Subject(s) - ferroelectricity , coercivity , materials science , thin film , doping , dopant , rayleigh scattering , condensed matter physics , hysteresis , silicon , nanotechnology , optoelectronics , optics , dielectric , physics
A wealth of studies have confirmed that the low‐field hysteresis behaviour of ferroelectric bulk ceramics and thin films can be described using Rayleigh relations, and irreversible domain wall motion across the array of pining defects has been commonly accepted as the underlying micro‐mechanism. Recently, HfO 2 thin films incorporated with various dopants were reported to show pronounced ferroelectricity, however, their microscopic domain structure remains unclear till now. In this work, the effects of the applied electric field amplitude, frequency and temperature on the sub‐coercive polarization reversal properties were investigated for 10 nm thick Si‐doped HfO 2 thin films. The applicability of the Rayleigh law to ultra‐thin ferroelectric films was first confirmed, indicating the existence of a multi‐domain structure. Since the grain size is about 20–30 nm, a direct observation of domain walls within the grains is rather challenging and this indirect method is a feasible approach to resolve the domain structure. (© 2015 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH &Co. KGaA, Weinheim)