title: Charge storage characteristics of Au nanocrystal memory improved by the oxygen vacancy-reduced HfO2 blocking layer.
abstract: This study characterizes the charge storage characteristics of metal/HfO2/Au nanocrystals (NCs)/SiO2/Si and significantly improves memory performance and retention time by annealing the HfO2 blocking layer in O2 ambient at 400°C. Experimental evidence shows that the underlying mechanism can be effectively applied to reduce oxygen vacancy and suppress unwanted electron trap-assisted tunneling. A memory window of 1 V at an applied sweeping voltage of ±2 V is also shown. The low program/erase voltage (±2 V) and the promising retention performances indicate the potential application of NCs in low-voltage, non-volatile memory devices.
authors.affiliation: Semiconductor Photonics Research Center, Department of Physics, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China. k_huang@xmu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Ruifan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Hongkai
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lai
authors.forename: Cheng
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Zhiming
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Junyong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kang