Ferroelectric Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 is a prime candidate material for integrated HfO2-based ferroelectric devices due to its simple composition, low crystallization temperature, and significant remanent polarization. It is particularly promising for integrated pyroelectric devices used in infrared sensing and energy harvesting, although the appearance of nonferroelectric tetragonal and monoclinic phases should be avoided to achieve high-performance pyroelectric sensors. Both nonferroelectric phases are strongly influenced by the Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 film thickness and annealing temperature. The sensitivity of the pyroelectric coefficient on film thickness is investigated with atomic layer-deposited Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 films within a 10–30 nm thickness range. The films are capped with TiN and undergo post-metallization anneals at 450 °C and 600 °C. An optimum pyroelectric coefficient of −56 μC K−1 m−2 is found in the 15 nm thick Hf0.5Zr0.5O2. The pyroelectric coefficient is found to be sensitive to thickness-dependent depolarization effects and monoclinic phase growth. Ferroelectric, dielectric, and pyroelectric properties are improved with a lower annealing temperature, demonstrating the back-end-of-line compatibility of Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 pyroelectric devices.

Antiferroelectric random access memory (AFERAM) is one of the newest alternative non-volatile memory technologies to emerge in recent years. ZrO 2 -based antiferroelectric films are exceptionally well-suited for memory applications with very high cycling endurance (>10 10 ) and low operating voltages (<2 V). Lightly alloying ZrO 2 with HfO 2 is performed to assess AFERAM device performance with back-end-of-line compatible thin film Zr 1-x Hf x O 2 (x ≤ 0.13) capacitors. The transition fields associated with antiferroelectric behavior are reduced with more Hf incorporation, yielding a larger magnitude switching polarization and memory window. Cycling endurance beyond 10 10 cycles is conducted on thin film capacitors where wake-up in AFERAM first leads to an increase, then a decrease in the memory window at a cumulative cycle number found to be dependent on the amount of Hf-incorporation. Hf-incorporation into ZrO 2 is demonstrated to be a feasible way to improve the memory window in ZrO 2 -based AFERAM.