An ultrathin integrated nanoelectromechanical transducer based on hafnium zirconium oxide

Abstract

Nanomechanical resonators that can operate in the super high frequency (3–30 GHz) or the extremely high frequency (30–300 GHz) regime could be of use in the development of stable frequency references, wideband spectral processors and high-resolution resonant sensors. However, such operation requires the dimensions of the mechanical resonators to be reduced to tens of nanometres, and current devices typically rely on transducers, for which miniaturization and chip-scale integration are challenging. Here, we show that integrated nanoelectromechanical transducers can be created using 10-nm-thick ferroelectric hafnium zirconium oxide (Hf0.5Zr0.5O2) films. The transducers are integrated on silicon and aluminium nitride membranes, and can yield resonators with frequencies from 340 kHz to 13 GHz and frequency–quality-factor products of up to 3.97 × 1012. Using electrical and optical probes, we show that the electromechanical transduction behaviour of the Hf0.5Zr0.5O2 film is based on the electrostrictive effect, and highlight the role of nonlinear electromechanical scattering in the operation of the resonator. Nanomechanical resonators with frequencies from 340 kHz to 13 GHz can be created using an integrated 10-nm-thick transducer layer of hafnium zirconium oxide.

Cite this article

Ghatge, M., Walters, G., Nishida, T. et al. An ultrathin integrated nanoelectromechanical transducer based on hafnium zirconium oxide. Nat Electron 2, 506–512 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-019-0305-3

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