Growth of epitaxial orthorhombic YO_1.5-substituted HfO₂ thin film

YO_1.5-substituted HfO₂ thin films with various substitution amounts were grown on (100) YSZ substrates by the pulsed laser deposition method directly from the vapor phase. The epitaxial growth of film with different YO_1.5 amounts was confirmed by the X-ray diffraction method. Wide-area reciprocal lattice mapping measurements were performed to clarify the crystal symmetry of films. The formed phases changed from low-symmetry monoclinic baddeleyite to high-symmetry tetragonal/cubic fluorite phases through an orthorhombic phase as the YO_1.5 amount increased from 0 to 0.15. The additional annular bright-field scanning transmission electron microscopy indicates that the orthorhombic phase has polar structure. This means that the direct growth by vapor is of polar orthorhombic HfO₂-based film. Moreover, high-temperature X-ray diffraction measurements showed that the film with a YO_1.5 amount of 0.07 with orthorhombic structure at room temperature only exhibited a structural phase transition to tetragonal phase above 450°C. This temperature is much higher than the reported maximum temperature of 200°C to obtain ferroelectricity as well as the expected temperature for real device application. The growth of epitaxial orthorhombic HfO₂-based film helps clarify the nature of ferroelectricity in HfO₂-based films (186 words/200 words).