In situ electron holography study of charge distribution in high-κ charge-trapping memory

Charge-trapping memory with high- κ insulator films is a candidate for future memory devices. Many efforts with different indirect methods have been made to confirm the trapping position of the charges, but the reported results in the literatures are contrary, from the bottom to the top of the trapping layers. Here we characterize the local charge distribution in the high- κ dielectric stacks under different bias with in situ electron holography. The retrieved phase change induced by external bias strength is visualized with high spatial resolution and the negative charges aggregated on the interface between Al 2 O 3 block layer and HfO 2 trapping layer are confirmed. Moreover, the positive charges are discovered near the interface between HfO 2 and SiO 2 films, which may have an impact on the performance of the charge-trapping memory but were neglected in previous models and theory. Charge-trapping memory offers many advantages over existing data storage media, though the spatial distribution of charge remains elusive. Here Yao et al . use electron holography to map its distribution in high-κ dielectric stacks under different applied bias.