A Theoretical Study of Multidomain Ferroelectric Switching Dynamics With a Physics-Based SPICE Circuit Model for Phase-Field Simulations

In this article, the multidomain nature of ferroelectric (FE) polarization switching dynamics in a metal-ferroelectric-metal (MFM) capacitor is explored through a physics-based phase-field approach, where the 3-D time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau (TDGL) equation and Poisson's equation are self-consistently solved with the SPICE simulator. Systematically calibrated based on the experimental measurements, the model well captures transient negative capacitance (NC) in pulse switching dynamics, with domain interaction and viscosity being the key parameters. It is found that the influence of pulse amplitudes on voltage transient behaviors can be attributed to the fact that the FE free energy profile strongly depends on how the domains interact. In addition, we extract the domain viscosity dynamics during polarization switching according to the experimental measurements. For the first time, a physics-based circuit-compatible SPICE model for multidomain phase-field simulations is established to reveal the impact of domain interaction on the NC effect and microscopic domain evolution. The findings of this article may have important implications for the charge boost induced by the stabilization of NC in an FE/dielectric (DE) stack since the so-called capacitance matching needs to be designed at a specific operating voltage or frequency.