International Conference on Solid State Devices and Materials

Laser-based photoemission electron microscopy (laser-PEEM) is unique in its deep probing depth and chemical state sensitivity. This enables the potential for nondestructive monitoring of dielectric breakdown (DB) in electronic devices. In our study, we explored HfO₂-based metal-ferroelectric-metal (MFM) capacitors using in-situ laser-PEEM. We visualized not only the conduction path that formed following the hard DB but also the regions responsible for the soft DB—a precursor phenomenon of hard DB. Moreover, by combining PEEM observations with time-dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) measurements, we discovered that the capacitors lifetime is influenced by the position of the breakdown. Our findings suggest that the in-situ laser-PEEM could be a revolutionary tool for nondestructively probing chemical-state changes in electronic devices.