Multi-domain ferroelectricity as a limiting factor for voltage amplification in ferroelectric field-effect transistors

TL;DR

This paper investigates the limitations of voltage amplification in ferroelectric field-effect transistors caused by multi-domain ferroelectricity, revealing that negative-capacitance regimes are inherently bounded, which impacts device design.

Contribution

It demonstrates that multi-domain ferroelectricity constrains voltage amplification in ferroelectric FETs, providing new design guidelines to account for this limitation.

Findings

Negative-capacitance regimes are bounded by multi-domain formation.

Multi-domain ferroelectricity limits maximum surface potential step-up.

New device design rules are proposed considering these limitations.

Abstract

We revise the possibility of having an amplified surface potential in ferroelectric field-effect transistors pointed out by [S. Salahuddin and S. Datta, Nano Lett. 8, 405 (2008)]. We show that the negative-capacitance regime that allows for such an amplification is actually bounded by the appearance of multi-domain ferroelectricity. This imposes a severe limit to the maximum step-up of the surface potential obtainable in the device. We indicate new device design rules taking into account this scenario.