Interfacial-Layer Design for Hf1-xZrxO2-Based FTJ Devices: From Atom to Array

For the first time, we demonstrate Ferroelectric Tunneling Junctions (FTJs) with both (a) 10-year retention time projected from measured data and (b) robust endurance (> 10
⁸
cycles) with the on-off ratio >10× by inserting a 1.8nm Al
2
O
3
interfacial layer (IL) into the FTJs. Compared with Metal-Ferroelectric-Metal (MFM) FTJs, higher orthorhombic phase (~6×) was verified by physical analyses and first-principles calculations in our proposed Metal-Ferroelectric-IL-Metal (MFIM) FTJs, resulting in the remanent polarization (2P
r
) which improves the retention and the on-off ratio significantly.