Select Publications

Re-imagining the resistor
from defective (ionic) to collective (ferroic) electronic order  

for atomic-scale resistive switching

Cheema et al. Enhanced ferroelectricity in ultrathin films grown directly on silicon.  Nature 580, 478–482 (2020).

Cheema et al. Emergent ferroelectricity in subnanometer binary oxide films on silicon.  Science 376, 648–652 (2022).

Re-imagining the transistor
from high-k dielectric to negative-k ferroelectric gate stacks 

for ultralow power transistor operation

Cheema et al. Ultrathin ferroic HfO2–ZrO2 superlattice gate stack for advanced transistors.  Nature 604, 65–71 (2022).

Re-imagining the capacitor
from electrochemical to electrostatic energy storage

for ultrahigh-density ultrafast-charging capacitors

Cheema et al. Giant energy storage and power density negative capacitance superlattices.  Nature 10.1038/s41586-024-07365-5 (2024).

Journal Publications

(* denotes equal author contribution)

(† denotes corresponding author)

Journal Publications


14. Giant energy storage and power density negative capacitance superlattices.

S Cheema†*, N Shanker*, S-L Hsu*, J Schaadt, N Ellis, M Cook, R Rastogi, R Pilawa-Podgurski, J Ciston, M Mohamed, S Salahuddin†.

Nature (2024). doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07365-5

Press: IEEE Spectrum - This Microcapacitor Charges 100 Million Times Faster Than Lithium-ion Batteries: A materials tweak could push microcapacitors onto next-gen chips

Press: Berkeley National Lab - Groundbreaking Microcapacitors Could Power Chips of the Future

Press: Berkeley Engineering - New generation of electrostatic capacitors could change the energy storage paradigm for microelectronics

Other Press: TechXplore, nanowerk, EurekAlert!


13.  Boost in Carrier Velocity due to Electrostatic Effects of Superlattice, Low EOT, Negative Capacitance Gate Stack.

C Garg, S Cheema, N Shanker, W Li, C Hu, S Salahuddin†. 

IEEE Electron Device Letters 45, 460–463 (2024).


12. In-Situ Measurement of Magnetoelectric Coupling in Multiferroic Nanocomposites of CoFe₂O₄ and Hf₀.₅Zr₀.₅O₂ with Residual Porosity.

SK Patel, DD Robertson, S Cheema, S Salahuddin, SH Tolbert†.

Nano Letters 23, 3267–3273 (2023).


11. Ultrathin ferroic HfO₂-ZrO₂ superlattice gate stack for advanced transistors.

S Cheema†*, N Shanker*, L Wang, CH Hsu, SL Hsu, Y Liao, M Jose, J Gomez, W Chakraborty, W Li, J Bae, S Volkman, D Kwon, Y Rho, G Pinelli, R Rastogi, D Pipitone, C Stull, M Cook, B Tyrrell, VA Stoica, Z Zhang, JW Freeland, CJ Tassone, A Mehta, G Saheli, D Thompson, DI Suh, W-T Koo, K-J Nam, DJ Jung, W-B Song, C-H Lin, S Nam, J Heo, N Parihar, C Grigoropoulos, P Shafer, P Fay, R Ramesh, S Mahapatra, J Ciston, S Datta, M Mohamed, C Hu, S Salahuddin†.

Nature 604, 65–71 (2022).

Featured: Science Special Issue Review - 75 Years of Transistors: Toward attojoule switching energy in logic transistors

Press: Berkeley News - Engineered crystals could help computers run on less power 

Press: Advanced Light Source - Multilayer Stack Opens Door to Low-Power Electronics

Other Press: The Daily Californian, Materials Today, physicsworld, COSMOS magazine, TechXplore, nanowerk, EurekAlert!


10. One nanometer HfO₂-based ferroelectric tunnel junctions on silicon.

S Cheema†*, N Shanker*, C-H Hsu, A Datar, J Bae, D Kwon, S Salahuddin†.

Advanced Electronic Materials 8, 2100499 (2022). 

Featured: Inside Front Cover


9. Emergent ferroelectricity in subnanometer binary oxide films on silicon.

S Cheema†*, N Shanker*, S-L Hsu*, C-H Hsu, Y Rho, VA Stoica, Z Zhang, JW Freeland, P Shafer, CP Grigoropoulos, J Ciston, S Salahuddin†.

Science 376, 648–652 (2022).

Press: Argonne National Lab - Thinnest ferroelectric material ever paves the way for new energy-efficient devices

Press: American Ceramic Society - Good things come in even smaller packages: ZrO₂ thin films on silicon show ferroelectricity down to 5 angstroms

Other Press: DOE Science News, Phys.org, EurekAlert!, nanowerk, Interesting Engineering


8. Electric Field-Induced Permittivity Enhancement in Negative-Capacitance FET.

Y-H Liao, D Kwon, S Cheema, N Shanker, AJ Tan, M-Y Kao, L-C Chen, C Hu, S Salahuddinc.

IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices 68, 1346–1351 (2021).


7. Enhanced ferroelectricity in ultrathin films grown directly on silicon.

S Cheema†*, D Kwon*, N Shanker, R dos Reis, S-L Hsu, J Xiao, H Zhang, R Wagner, A Datar, M R McCarter, CR Serrao, AK Yadav, G Karbasian, C-H Hsu, A J Tan, L-C Wang, V Thakare, X Zhang, A Mehta, E Karapetrova, RV Chopdekar, P Shafer, E Arenholz, C Hu, R Proksch, R Ramesh, J Ciston, S Salahuddin†.

Nature 580, 478–482 (2020).

Press: Berkeley Engineering - Researchers discover ferroelectricity at the atomic scale 

Press: Advanced Light Source - Unexpected rise in ferroelectricity as material thins

Other Press: Berkeley National Laboratory, Molecular Foundry, Berkeley Science Review, Phys.org, EurekAlert!, nanowerk, Tech Explorist, Oxford Instruments


6. Near Threshold Capacitance Matching in a Negative Capacitance FET With 1 nm Effective Oxide Thickness Gate Stack.

D Kwon*, S Cheema*, Y-K Lin, Y-H Liao, K Chatterjee, AJ Tan, C Hu, S Salahuddin†.

IEEE Electron Device Letters 41, 179–182 (2020).


5. Highly Scaled, High Endurance, -Gate, Nanowire Ferroelectric FET Memory Transistors. 

J-H Bae, D Kwon, N Jeon, S Cheema, AJ Tan, C Hu, S Salahuddin†.

IEEE Electron Device Letters 41, 1637–1640 (2020).


4. Experimental Demonstration of a Ferroelectric HfO2-Based Content Addressable Memory Cell. 

AJ Tan, K Chatterjee, J Zhou, D Kwon, Y-H Liao, S Cheema, C Hu, S Salahuddin†.

IEEE Electron Device Letters 41, 240–243 (2020).


3. Negative Capacitance FET With 1.8-nm-Thick Zr-Doped HfO₂ Oxide.

D Kwon*, S Cheema*, N Shanker, K Chatterjee, Y-H Liao, AJ Tan, C Hu, S Salahuddin†.

IEEE Electron Device Letters 40, 993–996 (2019).


2. Spatially resolved steady-state negative capacitance.

AK Yadav*, KX Nguyen*, Z Hong*, P Garcia*, CT Nelson, S Das, B Prasad, D Kwon, S Cheema, AI Khan, C Hu, J Iniguez, J Junquera, L-Q Chen, DA Muller, R Ramesh, S Salahuddin†.

Nature 565, 468–471 (2019).


1. Spin-orbit torques in ferrimagnetic GdFeCo alloys.

N Roschewsky, T Matsumura, S Cheema, F Hellman, T Kato, S Iwata, S Salahuddin†.

Applied Physics Letters 109, 112403 (2016).

Conference Publications

IEEE Conference Proceedings


C8. Record Transconductance in Lₑff ∼ 30 nm Self-Aligned Replacement Gate ETSOI nFETs Using Low EOT Negative Capacitance HfO₂-ZrO₂ Superlattice Gate Stack.

LC Wang, W Li, N Shanker, S Cheema, S-L Hsu∗, S Volkman, U Sikder, C Garg, JH Park, YH Liao, YK Lin, C Hu, S Salahuddin†.

In 2023 IEEE Symposium on VLSI Technology and Circuits 1-2 (IEEE, 2023).


C7. CMOS Demonstration of Negative Capacitance HfO₂-ZrO₂ Superlattice Gate Stack in a Self-Aligned, Replacement Gate Process.

N Shanker∗, M Cook∗, S Cheema∗, W Li∗, R Rastogi, D Pipitone, C Chen, M Smith, S Meninger, F Bauer, G Pinelli, J Hunt, S Salahuddin, M Mohamed†.

In 2022 IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM), 34.3.1-34.3.4 (IEEE, 2022).


C6. Quantitative study of EOT lowering in negative capacitance HfO₂-ZrO₂ superlattice gate stacks. 

M Hoffmann∗, S Cheema∗, N Shanker∗, W Li, and S Salahuddin†.

In 2022 IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM), 13.2.1-13.2.4 (IEEE, 2022).


C5. Enhancement in Capacitance and Transconductance in 90 nm nFETs with HfO₂-ZrO₂ Superlattice Gate Stack for Energy-efficient Cryo-CMOS.

W Li, L-C Wang, S Cheema, N Shanker, C Hu, S Salahuddin†.

In 2022 IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM), 22.3.1-22.3.4 (IEEE, 2022).


C4. On the PBTI Reliability of Low EOT Negative Capacitance 1.8 nm HfO₂-ZrO₂ Superlattice Gate Stack on Lg=90 nm nFETs.

N Shanker∗, L-C Wang∗, S Cheema, W Li, N Choudhury, C Hu, S Mahapatra, S Salahuddin†.

In 2022 IEEE Symposium on VLSI Technology and Circuits 421–422 (IEEE, 2022).


C3. Demonstration of Low EOT Gate Stack and Record Transconductance on Lg=90 nm nFETs Using 1.8 nm Ferroic HfO₂-ZrO₂ Superlattice.

W Li∗, L-C Wang∗, S Cheema, N Shanker, JH Park, Y-H Liao, S-L Hsu, C-H Hsu, SK Volkman, U Sikder, AJ Tan J-H Bae, C Hu, S Salahuddin†.

In 2021 IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM), 13.6.1-13.6.4 (IEEE, 2021).


C2. FeFETs for Near-Memory and In-Memory Compute.

S Salahuddin†, A Tan, S Cheema, N Shanker, M. Hoffmann, J-H Bae.

In 2021 IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM), 19.4.1-19.4.4 (IEEE, 2021).


C1. Towards the integration of HfZrO2-based Negative Capacitance Dielectrics on β-Ga₂O₃ Substrates.

GA Salcedo, AE Islam, M K Dietz, S Cheema, KD Leedy, KJ Liddy, AJ Green, W Wang, S Salahuddin, KD Chabak, JM Sattler†.

In NAECON 2021 - IEEE National Aerospace and Electronics Conference 7–11 (IEEE, 2021).