Volume 19, Issue 25 2206736
Research Article

Switchable Polar Nanotexture in Nanolaminates HfO2-ZrO2 for Ultrafast Logic-in-Memory Operations

Mohit Kumar

Corresponding Author

Mohit Kumar

Department of Energy Systems Research, Ajou University, Suwon, 16499 Republic of Korea

Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Ajou University, Suwon, 16499 Republic of Korea

E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]

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Seung-Ik Han

Seung-Ik Han

Department of Energy Systems Research, Ajou University, Suwon, 16499 Republic of Korea

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Yeonghwan Ahn

Yeonghwan Ahn

Department of Energy Systems Research, Ajou University, Suwon, 16499 Republic of Korea

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Yerin Jeon

Yerin Jeon

Department of Energy Systems Research, Ajou University, Suwon, 16499 Republic of Korea

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Jiyeong Park

Jiyeong Park

Department of Energy Systems Research, Ajou University, Suwon, 16499 Republic of Korea

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Hyungtak Seo

Corresponding Author

Hyungtak Seo

Department of Energy Systems Research, Ajou University, Suwon, 16499 Republic of Korea

Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Ajou University, Suwon, 16499 Republic of Korea

E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]

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First published: 17 March 2023
Citations: 6

Abstract

Nontrivial topological polar textures in ferroelectric materials, including vortices, skyrmions, and others, have the potential to develop ultrafast, high-density, reliable multilevel memory storage and conceptually innovative processing units, even beyond the limit of binary storage of 180° aligned polar materials. However, the realization of switchable polar textures at room temperature in ferroelectric materials integrated directly into silicon using a straightforward large area fabrication technique and effectively utilizing it to design multilevel programable memory and processing units has not yet been demonstrated. Here, utilizing vector piezoresponse force and conductive atomic force microscopy, microscopic evidence of the electric field switchable polar nanotexture is provided at room temperature in HfO2-ZrO2 nanolaminates grown directly onto silicon using an atomic layer deposition technique. Additionally, a two-terminal Au/nanolaminates/Si ferroelectric tunnel junction is designed, which shows ultrafast (≈83 ns) nonvolatile multilevel current switching with high on/off ratio (>106), long-term durability (>4000 s), and giant tunnel electroresistance (108%). Furthermore, 14 Boolean logic operations are tested utilizing a single device as a proof-of-concept for reconfigurable logic-in-memory processing. The results offer a potential approach to “processing with polar textures” and addressing the challenges of developing high-performance multilevel in-memory processing technology by virtue of its fundamentally distinct mechanism of operation.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Data Availability Statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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