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arXiv · 2607.16665

Three Million Years Opposite State Data Retention in Partially Switched Wurtzite Ferroelectrics

Maike Gremmel·Roberto Guido·Victor Witte·Thomas Mikolajick·Uwe Schröder·Simon Fichtner
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Abstract

Ferroelectric memories based on the wurtzite-structured ferroelectrics are projected to store information for more than 3 million years at 150C. These results are extracted by combining standard domain wall motion limited switching kinetics with the near-by-electrode injection model for opposite state retention in ferroelectric random access memory. This impressive performance is greatly aided by switching only a fraction of the total polarization to store data, in order to limit the initial imprint variation of the devices - an effect that is universally observed in films with different thicknesses (60 nm - 270 nm) and different compounds (AlScN and AlScBN). Paradoxically, yet systematically, this reduction in initial imprint consistently results in larger switching polarization after a given time, compared to the fully switching state and 5-7 orders of magnitude improved opposite state retention. Finally, partial switching is able to simultaneously boost endurance against premature polarization loss and breakdown, making it a promising strategy for improved operation of ferroelectric devices with large spontaneous polarization, in particularly wurtzite-structured compounds.

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Maike Gremmel, Roberto Guido, Victor Witte, Thomas Mikolajick, Uwe Schröder, Simon Fichtner. 2026-07-18. Three Million Years Opposite State Data Retention in Partially Switched Wurtzite Ferroelectrics. https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.16665

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