Simon Fichtner

Wurtzite‐type Al 1− x Sc x N solid solutions grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition are for the first time confirmed to be ferroelectric. The film with 230 nm thickness and x = 0.15 exhibits a coercive field of 5.5 MV cm −1 at a measurement frequency of 1.5 kHz. The single crystal quality and homogeneous chemical composition of the film are confirmed by X‐ray diffraction and spectroscopic methods such as time of flight secondary ion mass spectrometry. Annular bright field scanning transmission electron microscopy serves to prove the ferroelectric polarization inversion at the unit cell level. The single crystal quality further allows to image the large‐scale domain pattern of a wurtzite‐type ferroelectric for the first time, revealing a predominantly cone‐like domain shape along the c ‐axis of the material. As in previous work, this again implies the presence of strong polarization discontinuities along this crystallographic axis, which can be suitable for current transport. The domains are separated by narrow domain walls, for which an upper thickness limit of 3 nm is deduced but which can potentially be atomically sharp. The authors are confident that these results will advance the commencement of the integration of wurtzite‐type ferroelectrics to GaN as well as generally III‐N‐based heterostructures and devices.

In this work, the value and the polarity of the spontaneous and piezoelectric polarization have been investigated, as the use of two different reference structures for wurtzite-type group-III nitrides, namely, the zinc-blende and the layered-hexagonal crystal lattice, have resulted in different predictions. It was found that although the differences in value and polarity of the polarization for heterostructures such as wurtzite Al1−xScxN/GaN lead to similar interface sheet charges, a significant mismatch is observed when polarization reversal is considered. The interface sheet charge predicted before and after the polarization reversal in the wurtzite Al1−xScxN layer on GaN using the zinc-blende lattice as a reference predominantly shows a change in sign. When using the layered-hexagonal lattice as a reference, not only is the same polarity of the interface sheet charge maintained after polarization reversal, but it is even 30 times larger. In this case, the giant and positive spontaneous polarization values for metal-polar Al1−xScxN extracted from the ferroelectric switching, as well as the alignment of the piezoelectric polarization to it, were observed to be consistent with the predictions referenced to the layered-hexagonal lattice. Thus, it is concluded that the layered-hexagonal reference is not only more suitable for predicting the ferroelectric properties of wurtzite Al1−xScxN but should also be the correct reference when considering polarization reversal in heterostructures. If the significant increase in the interface sheet charge after polarization reversal is experimentally detected, it will allow the design and fabrication of novel devices for future high-frequency and power electronics applications.