Facile Ferroelectric Phase Transition Driven by Si Doping in HfO₂

The recently discovered ferroelectricity in thin-film orthorhombic HfO₂, which can be directly integrated into complementary metal–oxide semiconductor technology, has become an important research target. However, the use of orthorhombic HfO₂ in practical devices has been limited by undesirable mixing with the monoclinic phase, which is nonpolar and thus degrades the ferroelectric properties. Here, we demonstrate that a Si dopant significantly stabilizes the ferroelectric phase because of its unique bonding characteristics, particularly its intrinsic tendency to form strong covalent bonds with O, thereby weakening the phase boundary to stabilize the ferroelectric orthorhombic phase over the nonpolar monoclinic phase, relatively. On the basis of our theoretical predictions, we conducted transmission electron microscopy measurements and confirmed that Si substitution doping indeed induced monoclinic structural components into the orthorhombic phase, which is a strong indication of the weakened phase boundary and subsequent facilitation of the ferroelectric transition. This work thus provides an atomic-scale picture for understanding the unique role of Si in promoting the ferroelectric phase and the dopant dependence on the wake-up effect in HfO₂, offering a substantial advancement toward integrating ferroelectrics into practical devices.