Issue 22, 2023

Vector piezoelectric response and ferroelectric domain formation in Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 films

Abstract

The piezoelectric response in polycrystalline films of doped ferroelectric HfO2 has been explored so far; however, the lack of texture in most of the studied films prevents its full understanding. By selecting the appropriate substrate orientation, the ferroelectric orthorhombic phase ratio and crystallographic orientation can be modified in epitaxial films. We exploit this possibility to get further insight into the ferroelectric hafnium oxide piezoelectric response. While characterizing in-plane and out-of-plane piezoelectric responses, it is observed that their magnitude is mainly ruled by the presence of the orthorhombic phase and the polar axis of the polarization along the probing direction. It is also found for the as-grown state that along the out-of-plane direction a single ferroelectric domain is formed, and instead the in-plane response reveals a rich domain structure with a domain size of ≈10–30 nm. By characterizing the in-plane piezoelectric response, it is observed that it is anisotropic if the specific orientation, (110), of the SrTiO3 substrate is used. We propose that an out-of-plane single domain is formed due to the presence of an imprint electric field, whereas in-plane domains are formed by non-purely electrostatic interactions as revealed by their relatively large size. Besides, the small but sizeable in-plane anisotropic response is found to result from the in-plane crystallographic configuration, ultimately determined by the selected substrate.

Graphical abstract: Vector piezoelectric response and ferroelectric domain formation in Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 films

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
31 mar. 2023
Accepted
08 maí 2023
First published
10 maí 2023
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

J. Mater. Chem. C, 2023,11, 7219-7226

Vector piezoelectric response and ferroelectric domain formation in Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 films

H. Tan, T. Song, N. Dix, F. Sánchez and I. Fina, J. Mater. Chem. C, 2023, 11, 7219 DOI: 10.1039/D3TC01145C

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications, without requesting further permission from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given and it is not used for commercial purposes.

To request permission to reproduce material from this article in a commercial publication, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party commercial publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements