Hafnia-based Phase-Change Ferroelectric Steep-Switching FETs on a 2-D MoS$_2$ platform

Abstract: Ferroelectric field-effect transistors integrated on 2D semiconducting platforms are extremely relevant for low power electronics. Here, we propose and demonstrate a novel phase-change ferroelectric field effect transistor (PCFE-FET) for steep switching applications. Our gate stack is engineered as a ferroelectric Lanthanum doped hafnium oxide (LHO) proximity coupled with Mott insulator Ti$x$O${2x-1}$(N$y$) and is integrated onto a 2D MoS$_2$ channel. The interplay of partial polarization switching in the ferroelectric LHO layer and reversible field-tunable metal-insulator transition (MIT) in Ti$_x$O${2x-1}$(N$_y$) layer concomitantly triggers polar to non-polar phase transition in the LHO layer between 200 and 220 K. This results in distinctive step-like features in the channel current during DC measurements, and random current fluctuations in high-speed measurements with slim anticlockwise hysteresis. Our devices show subthreshold slopes as steep as 25 mV/dec at 210 K, breaking the Boltzmann limit. Our gate stack is also potentially tunable for operation at temperatures of interest, presenting innovative gate stack engineering approaches for low-power computing solutions.