Effect of H2 heat treatment on the switching behavior of ferroelectric AlScN capacitors

Impacts of post-heat treatment in a H2-contained (97% Ar and 3% H2) atmosphere on the switching kinetics of (001)-oriented AlScN capacitors are investigated. Fully saturated polarization can be obtained for all capacitors at frequencies of 50 Hz–50 kHz. In contrast to other ferroelectric materials, the domain wall movement behavior does not change after the heat treatment with frequency. The switching behavior follows the Kolmogorov–Avrami–Ishibashi (KAI) model, and the dimension of domain growth, n, values are ∼1–2 for all films before and after the H2-contained heat treatment. The domain nucleation and lateral domain growth in both the electric field- and time-dependent domain dynamics visualized by piezoresponse force microscopy are consistent with the KAI model. The activation energy increases slightly for the film after the heat treatment. This highly resilient switching behavior brings the AlScN films one step closer to realizing the next generation of nonvolatile memory technologies.