Transistors with ferroelectric Zr_XAl_1-XO_Y crystallized by ZnO growth for multi-level memory and neuromorphic computing

Ferroelectric (FE) field-effect transistors are interesting for their non-destructive readout characteristic and energy efficiency but are difficult to integrate on silicon platforms. Here, FE ZrXAl1-XOY (ZAO) is demonstrated by compressive strain in contact with ZnO. The metal-ferroelectric-semiconductor-metal capacitor exhibits a substantial remnant polarization of 15.2 mu C cm(-2), along with a bowknot-like anti-clockwise hysteresis in the capacitance curves. The FE-ZAO gated ZnO thin-film transistor presents a large memory window (3.84 V), low subthreshold swing (55 mV dec(-1)), high I-ON/I-OFF ratio (approximate to 10(8)), and low off-state current (approximate to 1 pA). The grazing incidence X-ray diffraction and scanning transmission electron microscopy analyses reveal the ferroelectric rhombohedral phase (space group R3m) in the nanocrystal ZAO, containing an angle of approximate to 71.7 degrees between the [111] and [11-1] directions with d(111)-spacing of 3.037 & Aring; and d(11-1)-spacing of 2.927 & Aring;. Finally, the memory and neuromorphic applications are analyzed by demonstrating multi-level memory and synaptic weight performance with a high learning accuracy of 91.82%.