Over the past decade, ferroelectric (FE) devices have experienced a resurgence of interest, fueled by the discovery of ferroelectricity in a simple binary oxide HfO2. Unlike traditional FEs, HfO2 offers ultra-scalable ferroelectricity that is compatible with industrial CMOS processes, opening compelling opportunities for advanced memory and logic applications. At the same time, recent studies have revealed unconventional aspects of its FE behavior, highlighting the need for deeper investigations into the fundamental physics of ferroelectricity in hafnia.
In this talk, I will provide a brief overview of the current status of the field [1,2] and present our theoretical and experimental approaches to harnessing FE hafnia for industrial applications. Beginning with fundamentals, I will revisit the modern theory of polarization to clarify the multi-valued nature of polarization in FE HfO2 [3]. I will then introduce an atomistic picture of ultrafast switching, enabled by the unique structural topology of FE HfO2 [3]. Finally, I will highlight our recent experimental efforts, including unpublished results, on applying FE hafnia to negative capacitance FETs (NCFETs) [4,5], FE Capacitors [6], and FEFETs [7,8].
[1] J. Y. Park et al., Adv. Mater. 2023, 2214970 (2022)
[2] José P. B. Silva et al. APL Mater. 11, 089201 (2023)
[3] D.-H. Choe et al., Mater. Today 50, 8 (2021)
[4] S. Jo et al., Nat. Electron. 6, 390 (2023)
[5] S. Lee et al., Sci. Adv., under revision (2025)
[6] K. Song et al., IEDM, accepted (2025)
[7] S. Yoo et al., VLSI Symposium (2024)
[8] S. Yoo et al., Nature, under revision (2025)
