One of the major challenges in developing new electronic memories is ensuring that they can be used repeatedly without their properties deteriorating. A team from the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC), in collaboration with the National Institute of Materials Physics in Romania, has demonstrated that modifying the structure of a ferroelectric material with an extremely thin layer can considerably improve its stability. The results, published in the journal Small, open up new possibilities for developing more reliable and durable electronic memories. The study was led by two ICMAB-CSIC researchers, Ignasi Fina and Florencio Sánchez.
The study focuses on hafnium oxide, a material that has attracted considerable interest from the semiconductor industry for its potential to produce memories capable of retaining information without requiring a continuous power supply. “Major semiconductor companies are currently investing enormous amounts in this material because it has great potential to be used in the short term in memories that could be revolutionary,” says Florencio Sánchez.
However, one of the main obstacles to its application is that its properties can change with use, particularly when subjected to the numerous writing cycles required by an electronic memory.
To address this problem, the researchers investigated how the position of a nanometre-thick layer of zirconium oxide affects the material. They placed it above, below and on both sides (like a sandwich), comparing how each configuration affects its properties. The results show that one of the three options is far superior to the others: placing this layer only on top improves resistance to repeated use without compromising other important characteristics of the material.
A stable response over millions of cycles
With this configuration, the team has achieved variations of less than 10% in the material's electrical polarisation, the property that enables information storage, over approximately 100 million cycles. In addition, the device switches in nanoseconds, and the stored information is retained for periods exceeding 10 years.
“The most significant achievement has been obtaining a device that can operate with a constant response. What is needed is for your electronic system not to change after it has been used many times”, explains Ignasi Fina.
The research is part of the long-standing research line on ferroelectric hafnium oxide developed by Sánchez and Fina, and has formed part of Mehrdad Ghiasabadi Farahani's doctoral thesis. In this study, they used particularly well-oriented crystalline layers, known as epitaxial layers, which make it possible to study more precisely the physical phenomena responsible for the material's behaviour. Although these systems are not yet directly applicable to the industrial manufacture of memories, the results help researchers understand how to optimise their properties and may guide the development of future electronic devices.
Reference article
Interface Engineering for Expanded Stable Polarization Regime Upon Cycling in Ferroelectric Hf0.5Zr0.5O2
M. Ghiasabadi Farahani, C. Chirila, R. Solanas, L. Pintilie, I. Fina y F. Sánchez.
Small (2026)
DOI: 10.1002/smll.75462
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