PIF2024 - Engineering FerroElectric HfO2-based epitaxial films FOR new MEmory Devices (FE4MED) - PID2023-147211OB-C22

Electronics has become a ubiquitous and indispensable technological reality in 21st century, with an increasing electricity consumption will soon become technically unmanageable and unsustainable for the environment. Most of this electrical power is used in storage, transmission and processing of data. To tackle this tremendous challenge, a key industrial strategy is the development of faster, low-power memory devices, which in many cases rely on discovering new materials. The ground-breaking finding of ferroelectricity in CMOS-compatible doped hafnium oxide (HfO2) films in 2011 has placed non-volatile ferroelectric memories in the spotlight of all Semiconductor companies. This PhD project aims at gaining an in-depth knowledge of the science and engineering of the ferroelectric properties of HfO2-based epitaxial thin films, to improve their functional properties and pave the way towards a new generation of CMOS compatible faster and energy-efficient memory devices.