Domain Walls Stabilized by Intrinsic Phonon Modes and Engineered Defects Enable Robust Ferroelectricity in HfO2

Abstract

Ferroelectric $\mathrm{HfO}_2$ has attracted extensive research interest for its applications in AI era. The domain walls play a crucial role in phase structure stabilization and polarization switching of ferroelectric $\mathrm{HfO}_2$, however, a thorough understanding is still lacking. Here, we developed a unified framework based on phonon mode expansion to systematically study the effects of phonon modes and defects on domain wall structures. Using this approach combined with first-principle calculations, we revealed that the interface phonon modes play a key role in stability of domain walls; defects pin and stabilize ferroelectric domains, which in turn stabilizes the metastable orthorhombic phase and facilitates polarization switching. This provides an insight from the microscopic physics origin into the enhanced ferroelectricity in $\mathrm{HfO}_2$ by doping and defect engineering. Furthermore, the theoretically predicted domain structures and defect distributions were observed in La-doped $\mathrm{HfO}_2$ ferroelectric films by EELS and STEM experiments, which confirms the validity of our findings.