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. 2026 Mar;38(16):e20258.
doi: 10.1002/adma.202520258. Epub 2026 Feb 11.

Revealing the Defect-Driven Ferroelectric Mechanisms of Aluminum Nitride

Bogdan Dryzhakov  1 , Chloe Skidmore  2 , Drew Behrendt  3 , Sebastian Calderon 5th  4 , Leonard C Jacques  5 , Erdem Ozdemir  2 , John Hayden  2 , Ian Mercer  2 , Ali Mohammadi Dinani  6 , Ilia Ivanov  1 , John Lasseter  1 , Bernadeta Srijanto  1 , Alireza Sepehrinezhad  5 , GaUn Jeong  7 , Betul Akkopru Akgun  2 , Andrew M Rappe  3 , Adri C T van Duin  5   7 , Susan Trolier-McKinstry  2 , Elizabeth C Dickey  4 , Steven J Randolph  1 , Jon-Paul Maria  2 , Kyle P Kelley  1
Affiliations

Revealing the Defect-Driven Ferroelectric Mechanisms of Aluminum Nitride

Bogdan Dryzhakov et al. Adv Mater. 2026 Mar.

Abstract

Wurtzite III-nitride compounds are CMOS-compatible with widespread industrial interest to exercise ferroelectricity, despite their polar structure being highly resistant to polarization reversal. Here, we induce and tune ferroelectric properties in w-AlN via direct-write ion-beam processing, using nanoscale patterned defect engineering as a post-growth alternative to conventional cation substitution. Nanometric piezoresponse spectroscopy of the focused He+ beam patterned defect concentrations in ferroelectric Al0.92B0.08N measures a localized 10x enhancement in effective piezoresponse and 40% reduction in switching barrier. The irradiation-induced point defects convert piezoelectric AlN into a ferroelectric system with site-saturated nucleation and raise the dielectric susceptibility, switched polarization, and effective piezoelectric coefficient. Enhanced defect-lattice interactions in AlN increase carrier conduction and phonon scattering loss but preserve long-range crystallinity. Based on atomistic analysis of nudged elastic band density functional theory calculations and reactive force field simulations, both nitrogen vacancies and defect complexes disrupt bond ordering, facilitating a line-by-line low-barrier switching of pristine AlN.

Keywords: Aluminum nitride; Defects; Ferroelectrics; Ion irradiation; Thin films.

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