Experimental confirmation of temperature dependent negative capacitance in ferroelectric field effect transistor

In this paper, we report the basic design conditions and the experimental confirmation of a temperature dependent negative capacitance (NC) effect in a ferroelectric field-effect-transistor (Fe-FET). We find that the internal voltage amplification peaks of a metal-ferroelectric-metal-insulator-semiconductor (MFMIS) structure are correlated with the S-shape of the polarization versus electrical field characteristics. The internal voltage amplification is responsible for the subthreshold swing reduction in a Fe-FET; this effect cancels out when the temperature is increased close to the Curie temperature because of the narrowing of the NC region and because of the saturation of the amplification. A counter-clockwise rotation of the P-V loops with an associated increase of the dP/dV slope with the temperature is reported, which corresponds to an increase of the overall ferroelectric capacitance with the temperature. Finally, we theoretically and experimentally demonstrate that an optimum temperature exists at which the amplification gets its maximum. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4704179]