The development of hafnia-based ferroelectric memory necessitates careful balancing of retention time and switching endurance—both critically dependent on operating voltage. While lower voltages naturally reduce power consumption and increase endurance, they induce partial polarization switching (polydomain states), whose retention properties remain poorly understood. This challenge is compounded by the industry’s requirement for 10-year retention, which cannot be directly measured. Here we establish a physics-based framework predicting polarization loss in polydomain ${\mathrm{Hf}}_{0.5}{\mathrm{Zr}}_{0.5}{\mathrm{O}}_2$ capacitors under low-voltage operation. Time-resolved $I$-$V$ analysis reveals opposing imprint effects in domains with upward (P$\uparrow$) and downward (P$\downarrow$) polarization, manifested as peak splitting in switching currents. This behavior drives retention degradation through two distinct mechanisms: progressive domain inaccessibility as shifting coercive fields surpass read-voltage thresholds, and polarization backswitching during read operations due to imprint-induced asymmetric switching. The proposed model predicts retention loss across arbitrary read voltages by correlating the time-dependent coercive-voltage evolution in the P$\uparrow$ domain and P$\downarrow$ domain populations that constitute the domain configuration established during the write operation. The framework demonstrates that read voltage dominates retention stability, providing essential design rules for memory optimization. These findings bridge fundamental domain dynamics with practical device engineering, advancing scalable ferroelectric memory development.

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• Electric polarization
• Ferroelectric domains
• Transport phenomena
• Devices for digital logic, storage & processing
• Ferroelectrics
• Transition metal oxides
• Numerical techniques
• Transport techniques