Investigation of electrical properties of individual GaN nanowire-based ferroelectric field effect transistor

Abstract

Ferroelectric field effect transistors (FeFETs) using individual GaN nanowire as the conducting channel and Pb(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3 (PZT) thin film as the gate dielectric were fabricated, and their electrical properties were investigated. The curves of the transfer characteristics for the individual GaN nanowire-based FeFET are of counterclockwise hysteresis loops, as the gate voltage was swept from negative to positive and then back. The memory window is about 5 V, and an on/off current ratio is up to 103 at zero gate voltage, indicating the feasibility of one-bit ferroelectric memory. The physical mechanism for the memory effect could be attributed to the reversible carrier concentration in individual GaN nanowire, which is modulated by the switchable remnant polarization of PZT thin film. The results may be helpful for the potential application of GaN nanowire in nonvolatile memory.