Emergent giant ferroelectric properties in cost-effective raw zirconia dioxide

Abstract

Ferroelectric fluorite dioxides like hafnium (HfO2)-based materials are considered to be one of the most potential candidates for nowadays large-scale integrated-circuits (ICs). While zirconia (ZrO2)-based fluorites materials, which has the same structure as HfO2 and more abundant resources and lower cost of raw materials, is usually thought to be anti- or ferroelectric-like. Here we reported a giant ferroelectric remnant polarization (Pr) amounted to 53 {\mu}C/cm2 in orthorhombic ZrO2 thin film at room temperature. This ferroelectricity arises from an electric field induced anti-ferroelectric to ferroelectric phase transition which is particularly noticeable at 77 K. Our work reveals the intrinsic ferroelectricity in ZrO2 thin films and offers a new pathway to understand the ferroelectricity origin in fluorite oxides.