Mechanism of polarization “Wake-Up” in ferroelectric Hafnia-Zirconia thin films

•Analysis of otherwise-identical HZO thin film capacitors deposited under different temperatures that exhibit vastly different polarization wake-up behavior.•Correlated electrical, synchrotron X-ray diffraction and piezoforce microscopy measurements clearly demonstrate polarization wake-up in the analyzed HZO capacitors results from a field-induced crystallographic phase change.•Use of non-destructive methods allows the phenomenon to be observed with relaxing the mechanical and electrostatic boundary conditions on the ferroelectric thin film capacitors.