On the material genome of wurtzite ferroelectrics

Abstract: As the dielectric film thickness shrinks to ~10 nm, some traditional wurtzite piezoelectric materials demonstrate ferroelectricity through element doping. Among them, Sc doped AlN and Mg doped ZnO are the most famous examples. While it is widely acknowledged that the dopant atoms effectively reduce the coercive field, enabling ferroelectric polarization switching, the material genome of these wurtzite (WZ) ferroelectrics is still less understood. In this work, we analyze the features of WZ ferroelectrics, ascribing them to five-coordination (5C) ferroelectrics, which may be compared with 6C ferroelectrics (perovskite-type) and 7C ferroelectrics (hafnia-like). In particular, the exact reason for their adopting the hexagonal WZ structure instead of the zinc blende structure is studied. Emphasis is paid to the degree of ionicity in promoting the hexagonal arrangement, and the phenomenon of layer distance compression is discovered and explained in WZ ferroelectrics. The role of element doping in coercive field reduction is understood within this context.