Dynamics Studies of Polarization Switching in Ferroelectric Hafnium Zirconium Oxide

In this paper, we review the ultrafast direct measurement on the transient ferroelectric polarization switching in hafnium zirconium oxide with crossbar metal-insulator-metal (MIM) structures including materials development, device fabrication, structure optimization and ultrafast electrical pulse measurement setup. Observation of a record low sub-nanosecond characteristic switching time of 925 ps was achieved on a single crossbar structure and a record fast polarization switching of 360 ps was achieved with 0.1 μm2 crossbar array device structure respectively. The impact of electric field, film thickness and device area on the polarization switching speed is systematically studied and the results are supported by a framework of nucleation limited switching model.