Formation of iridium nanocrystals with highly thermal stability for the applications of nonvolatile memory device with excellent trapping ability

Abstract

This paper presents the formation of iridium nanocrystals (Ir-NCs) embedded in SiO(2) matrix and it can be used for potential applications of nonvolatile memory devices. The NC formation is investigated by varying Ir film thickness; and the thermal agglomeration is also studied by applying various annealing temperatures and process time. The results of systematic characterization including capacitance-voltage, transmission electron microscopy, and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy show that the high work-function (5.27 eV) metallic-NCs have a highly thermal stability (up to 900 degrees C) and the resulted Al/SiO(2)/Ir-NCs/SiO(2)/Si/Al stack can have a good retention ability and significant hysteresis window of 17.4 V. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3498049]