Work

Characterization of fluorite-structured ferroelectrics using transmission electron microscopy: Techniques, challenges, and recent advances

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Fluorite-structured ferroelectrics, such as hafnium oxide and its alloyed variants, are key candidates for next-generation memory devices. Yet, fundamental questions about switching mechanisms, domain dynamics, and phase evolution remain open. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) provides unique capabilities to address these challenges by simultaneously resolving the positions of anions and cations, chemical variations, and structural transformations. Recent advances—including in situ heating, electron beam-induced switching, electron energy loss spectroscopy, and differential phase contrast imaging—have revealed critical insights into phase transitions, potential switching pathways, and oxygen vacancy behavior. However, experimental barriers such as TEM sample-preparation-induced artifacts, high coercive fields, and imaging constraints persist, especially for polycrystalline films. By offering a focused overview of current TEM developments in fluorite ferroelectrics, this work outlines how TEM contributes to understanding key phenomena and proposes a roadmap for future studies.

Source: Applied Physics Letters

DOI: 10.1063/5.0288349

Authors: Sebastian Calderon, Ece Gunay, Jon F. Ihlefeld, Elizabeth C. Dickey

Institutions: Carnegie Mellon University, University of Virginia

Language: English

Topic: Ferroelectric and Negative Capacitance Devices

Subfield: Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Funders: Carnegie Mellon University, Energy Frontier Research Centers

Award: G1643708521