Subcycling-Induced Split-Up Behavior in Antiferroelectric ZrO₂ Thin Films

Antiferroelectric (AFE) ZrO₂ and HfO₂-based thin films are emerging as promising materials for energy storage and low-power memory applications due to their high compatibility with the complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology. Despite extensive research on their ferroelectric (FE) counterparts, many properties of AFE materials remain unexplored. For instance, while the subcycling-induced split-up of the transient current peak in FE Sr:HfO₂ was discussed in 2015, the split-up behavior of fluorite-type AFE thin films has not yet been investigated. Here, we introduce the subcycling-induced split-up behavior in 10 nm AFE ZrO₂ thin films. Using transient current-voltage measurements, we demonstrate that the position of the split-up dip can be controlled by adjusting the subcycling voltage, attributed to the differences between the non-switching (NSW) and switching (SW) domains. First-order reversal curves (FORCs) showed that the internal bias field splits up after subcycling. Additionally, we report that unipolar subcycling can induce an asymmetric split-up phenomenon. These findings enhance our understanding of the split-up behavior in AFE ZrO₂ thin films, potentially optimizing their practical applications.