Impact of Pre-Annealed ZrO₂ Interfacial Layer on the Ferroelectric Behavior of Hf_0.5Zr_0.5O₂

This work systematically investigates the impact of a pre-annealed ZrO2 interfacial layer on the ferroelectric behavior of Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 (HZO) capacitors. The remanent polarization (2Pr) value of HZO capacitors, including configurations such as W/HZO/TiN/p(+) Si, W/HZO/(pre-annealed) ZrO2/TiN/p(+) Si, W/HZO/SiO2/TiN/p(+) Si, and W/HZO/SiO2/p(+) Si, exhibits significant variations. The W/HZO/(pre-annealed) ZrO2/TiN/p(+) Si capacitor demonstrates superior ferroelectric performance, with a 2Pr value of similar to 32 mu C/cm(2). Furthermore, by optimizing the thickness combination of HZO and the pre-annealed ZrO2 interfacial layer, a capacitor with a 10 nm HZO and 2 nm ZrO2 achieves the largest 2Pr value. The pre-annealing process applied to ZrO2 is found to play a very important role in inducing the orthorhombic phase and thus enhancing ferroelectricity. This enhancement is attributed to the pre-annealed 2 nm ZrO2 interfacial layer acting as a structural guide for the subsequent HZO orthorhombic phase, thereby improving the ferroelectric performance of HZO capacitors. These findings provide a comprehensive explanation and experimental verification of the impact of pre-annealed ZrO2 on ferroelectric devices, offering novel insights for the optimization of ferroelectric properties.