Sharp Transformation across Morphotropic Phase Boundary in Sub-6 nm Wake-Up-Free Ferroelectric Films by Atomic Layer Technology.

Atomic layer engineering is investigated to tailor the morphotropic phase boundary (MPB) between antiferroelectric, ferroelectric, and paraelectric phases. By increasing the HfO seeding layer with only 2 monolayers, the overlying ZrO layer experiences the dramatic phase transition across the MPB. Conspicuous ferroelectric properties including record-high remanent polarization (2P ≈ 60 µC cm ), wake-up-free operation, and high compatibility with advanced semiconductor technology nodes, are achieved in the sub-6 nm thin film.

AlN epitaxy on SiC by low-temperature atomic layer deposition layer-by-layer, atomic layer annealing.

AlN thin films were epitaxially grown on a 4H-SiC substrate atomic layer deposition (ALD) along with atomic layer annealing (ALA). By applying the layer-by-layer, ALA treatment using helium/argon plasma in each ALD cycle, the as-deposited film gets crystallization energy from the plasma, which results in significant enhancement of the crystal quality to achieve a highly crystalline AlN epitaxial layer at a deposition temperature as low as 300 °C. In a nanoscale AlN epitaxial layer with a thickness of ∼30 nm, X-ray diffraction reveals a low full-width-at-half-maximum of the AlN (0002) peak of only 176.