Influence of electrostriction and voltage-induced screening effects on the tunnel electroresistance in tunnel junctions with composite ferroelectric barriers

The electron transport characteristics of magnetic and non-magnetic ferroelectric tunnel junctions based on Hf 0.5 Zr 0.5 O 2 are investigated in this study. A modified linear approach to the Thomas-Fermi interfacial screening model is employed to simulate these properties. This method is developed by leveraging the quantum approximation of the quasiclassical spin-resolved point-like contact formalism. The oxygen vacancies, voltage-induced screening, and electrostriction effect are the key phenomena exploited to build the potential profile and hence to simulate the resistive switching characteristics of the ferroelectric tunnel junctions. To validate its precision, the model is extensively verified with experimental data. The obtained model is generalized to reproduce mono-domain and multi-domain ferroelectric switching, featuring its effectiveness for non-volatile storage devices and ferroelectric-field effect transistors.