Ultrahigh dielectric permittivity in Hf<sub>0.5</sub>Zr<sub>0.5</sub>O<sub>2</sub> thin-film capacitors.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 40102435.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-025-57963-8 and PMC identifier 11920517.
- Licence recorded as CC BY-NC-ND.
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Abstract
The ever-shrinking electrostatic capacitor, which is capable of storing substantial quantities of electrical charge, has found widespread applications in high-storage-density dynamic random access memory and energy-efficient complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor devices. Despite the high energy storage densities (133-152 J/cm<sup>3</sup>) and efficiencies (75-90%) that have been realized using relaxor ferroelectric thick films, low-permittivity interfacial layers in the ultrathin films have caused the overall permittivity to be one to two orders of magnitude lower than expected. However, innovative use of complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor-compatible HfO<sub>2</sub>-based materials with high permittivities (~52) could enable integration of these capacitors into few-nanometre-scale devices. This study reports an ultrahigh dielectric permittivity of 921, stored charge density of 349 μC/cm<sup>2</sup>, and energy density of 584 J/cm<sup>3</sup> with nearly 100% efficiency within near-edge plasma-treated Hf<sub>0.5</sub>Zr<sub>0.5</sub>O<sub>2</sub> thin-film capacitors when the Hf-based material's ferroelectricity disappears suddenly after polarization fatigue. The ultrahigh dielectric permittivity originates from a distorted orthorhombic phase with ordered oxygen vacancies that enables high-density integration of extremely scaled logic and memory devices for low-voltage applications.