Metastable ferroelectricity driven by depolarization fields in ultrathin Hf0.5Zr0.5O2

Abstract

HfO2-based ferroelectric materials have immense technological potential and so significant attention has been given to improve the ferroelectric properties at low-thickness. Here, using Landau Devonshire theory, the authors show the origin of pinched hysteresis loops is connected with the existence of pronounced depolarizing fields which are minimized during field cycling recovering the full ferroelectric loops.