Probing the Evolution of Electrically Active Defects in Doped Ferroelectric HfO2 during Wake-Up and Fatigue

We correlate the concentration and configuration of electrical defects in ferroelectric Si-doped HfO2 (FE-HfO2) with the electrical device performance during wake-up and fatigue regimes. To this end, we combine time-to-breakdown (TDDB), Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM), conductive atomic force microcopy (C-AFM) and Scalpel SPM, probing for the first time, the nanoscopic material variations as a function of device's field cycling behavior.