Promote Hf_0.5Zr_0.5O₂ FTJs ON/OFF by Thermal Rewake-Up Operation for Neuromorphic Computing

The Hf0.5Zr0.5O2-based ferroelectric tunnel junction (FTJ) devices are fabricated and further enhanced by a proposed "thermal rewake-up" (TR) operation at different high temperatures. The measured electrical characteristics show that TR operation can significantly enhance the ferroelectric remnant polarization (P-r) up to 29.1 mu C /cm(2), and can boost the FTJ resistance ON/OFF ratio from 9.8 to 34.9, meantime achieving 10(5) cycles endurance and 10(4) s data retention. Furthermore, the neural network adopting TR FTJ devices as electronic synapses exhibits improved accuracy from 95.76% to 98.81% and enhanced tolerance to noise in the task of handwritten digit recognition. Hence, this letter demonstrates a feasible approach to improve the switching behavior of FTJ devices in applications of binary/multi-level memories and neuromorphic computing.