Charge storage characteristics of ultra-small Pt nanoparticle embedded GaAs based non-volatile memory

Charge storage characteristics of ultra-small Pt nanoparticle embedded devices were characterized by capacitance-voltage measurements. A unique tilt target sputtering configuration was employed to produce highly homogenous nanoparticle arrays. Pt nanoparticle devices with sizes ranging from ∼0.7 to 1.34 nm and particle densities of ∼3.3-5.9×10 12 cm −2 were embedded between atomic layer deposited and e-beam evaporated tunneling and blocking Al 2 O 3 layers. These GaAs-based non-volatile memory devices demonstrate maximum memory windows equivalent to 6.5 V. Retention characteristics show that over 80% charged electrons were retained after 10 5 s, which is promising for device applications.