AUTHOR=Lancaster Suzanne , Lomenzo Patrick D. , Engl Moritz , Xu Bohan , Mikolajick Thomas , Schroeder Uwe , Slesazeck Stefan 

TITLE=Investigating charge trapping in ferroelectric thin films through transient measurements

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Nanotechnology

VOLUME=4

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/nanotechnology/articles/10.3389/fnano.2022.939822

DOI=10.3389/fnano.2022.939822

ISSN=2673-3013

ABSTRACT=<p>A measurement technique is presented to quantify the polarization loss in ferroelectric thin films as a function of delay time during the first 100s after switching. This technique can be used to investigate charge trapping in ferroelectric thin films by analyzing the magnitude and rate of polarization loss. Exemplary measurements have been performed on Hf<sub>0.5</sub>Zr<sub>0.5</sub>O<sub>2</sub> (HZO) and HZO/Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> films, as a function of pulse width and temperature. It is found that the competing effects of the depolarization field, internal bias field and charge trapping lead to a characteristic Gaussian dependence of the rate of polarization loss on the delay time. From this, a charge trapping and screening model could be identified which describes the dynamics of polarization loss on short timescales.</p>