Mesoscopic phenomena in Au nanocrystal floating gate memory structure

Abstract

A resonant tunneling process is demonstrated in the HfAlO/Au nanocrystals/HfAlO trilayer nonvolatile memory ͑NVM͒ structure on Si, where the electrons tunnel back and forth to the Au nanocrystals due to the various mesoscopic behaviors. The electron tunneling behavior in this trilayer structure exhibits dissimilar resemblance to those in double-barrier tunnel junctions taking into account of the correlation of Coulomb blockade effect. The observed specific tunneling process is beneficial in studying the interplays of various mesoscopic physics and application of single electron devices into NVM.

Controlling the reproducibility of Coulomb blockade phenomena for gold nanoparticles on an organic monolayer/silicon system

“…When single-charge electronics are targeted, the challenge is even more serious, since the core of the device is a metallic nanoparticle (NP) or a quantum dot that needs to be positioned with an accuracy better than 0.1 nm to form a reproducible tunnel barrier junction with the source electrode [1]. Single-charge electronics received strong interest in the early 2000s [2][3][4], and more recently, the successful operation of a variety of devices was demonstrated, such as single-charge transistors [5][6][7][8], organic memory transistors [9], metal-organic insulator-semiconductor solar cells [10], and floating gate memories [11]. These prototype devices open the route to built-in logical electronics, where the discrete nature of the current is used to directly implement logical functions [12][13][14][15].…”

Gold Nanoparticles on Oxide-Free Silicon–Molecule Interface for Single Electron Transport

“…At room temperature, this condition is fulfilled for nanoparticles smaller than 5 nm. In the early 2000s, a strong interest arose for single electron phenomena such as the Coulomb blockade, fueled by the hope of creating new architectures for single charge electronics. − Some single electron transistors have been fabricated − as well as nonvolatile memories. , However, the development of devices based on single electron transport faces serious challenges due to the poor reproducibility of these devices and the difficulty in precisely controlling Coulomb blockade phenomena. One reason for this lies in the insufficient control of the interface quality and the nanogap thickness .…”

“…8−11 Some single electron transistors have been fabricated 12−15 as well as nonvolatile memories. 16,17 However, the development of devices based on single electron transport faces serious challenges due to the poor reproducibility of these devices and the difficulty in precisely controlling Coulomb blockade phenomena. One reason for this lies in the insufficient control of the interface quality and the nanogap thickness.…”

Nonvolatile Floating-Gate Memories Using Zr and ZrO2 Nanodots

“…[2][3][4] Especially, metal-ND NVMs are attractive because of their high density of states around the Fermi-level, wide range of available work function, and small energy perturbation. [5][6][7] However, pure metal-ND NVMs might have thermal-stability problems because conventional CMOS processes require high-temperature annealing. 5 There are several evidences that almost any chemical reaction or interdiffusion is not likely to occur in metal-oxide-ND NVMs during annealing, responsible for the good thermal stability in the charge-trapping behaviors.…”