Emerging ferroelectric materials ScAlN: applications and prospects in memristors

Abstract

The research found that after doping with rare earth elements, a large number of electrons and holes will be produced on the surface of AlN, which makes the material have the characteristics of spontaneous polarization. A new type of ferroelectric material has made a new breakthrough in the application of nitride-materials in the field of integrated devices. In this paper, the application prospects and development trends of ferroelectric material ScAlN in memristors are reviewed. Firstly, various fabrication processes and structures of the current ScAlN thin films are described in detail to explore the implementation of their applications in synaptic devices. Secondly, a series of electrical properties of ScAlN films, such as the current switching ratio and long-term cycle durability, were tested to explore whether their electrical properties could meet the basic needs of memristor device materials. Finally, a series of summaries on the current research studies of ScAlN thin films in the synaptic simulation are made, and the working state of ScAlN thin films as a synaptic device is observed. The results show that the ScAlN ferroelectric material has high residual polarization, no wake-up function, excellent stability and obvious STDP behavior, which indicates that the modified material has wide application prospects in the research and development of memristors.