Ferroelectric properties of pure ZrO2 thin films by chemical solution deposition

Abstract Ferroelectricity in pure zirconia (ZrO2) thin films, manufactured on Si (100) substrates via the chemical solution deposition method using all-inorganic aqueous salt precursor, has been demonstrated for the first time. The influence of thickness on the crystalline structure and ferroelectric properties of the thin films were measured and showed that they were strongly affected by the film thickness. The structural data indicated that as the film thickness increased from 30 nm to 50 nm, the m-phase fraction increased, and a phase transition from orthorhombic to cubic and then tetragonal occurred near the main diffraction peak of 30.7°. The lowest m-phase fraction of 15.4 % was obtained in the pure ZrO2 film with a thickness of 30 nm, and after 103 field cycling, it exhibited the highest relative permittivity of 39.6 as well as the highest residual polarization of 8.5 μC/cm2.