Lorentz-tail engineering toward over 10-year data retention with minimum loss in ferroelectric HZO

Abstract

As the annual volume of data production exceeds tens of zettabytes, there is increasing interest in developing non-volatile materials for next-generation memory technologies. Among them, HfO₂-based fluorite-structured ferroelectrics have emerged as leading candidates due to their ability to maintain ferroelectric properties even at thicknesses below 10 nm and their compatibility with conventional complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) processes. However, the inherently large depolarisation field induced by the ultra-thin film nature makes it challenging to achieve the over 10-year data retention required for practical memory applications. In this study, we identify that retention degradation originates from the tail region of the polarisation switching distribution and demonstrate that Lorentz-tail engineering can substantially enhance retention performance. Accelerated retention tests show that the engineered ferroelectric HZO retains over 93% of its polarisation after a projected 10 years, thus contributing to the advancement of HfO₂-based ferroelectrics for memory device applications.