Nonvolatile Memories of Ge Nanodots within ZrO2

Trilayer structures of ZrO2/Ge nanodots (NDs)/ZrO2 were fabricated by using ion-beam-sputtering deposition and annealing. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy demonstrated that Ge NDs of 3 ~ 4 nm size were formed between the stoichiometric ZrO2 layers. The memory window, which was estimated by using the capacitance-voltage hysteresis, increased to ~V with increasing annealing temperature (TA) to 500℃ and was almost invariant by further increase of TA to 900℃. These results suggest that the Ge NDs within ZrO2 are promising for thermally-stable nonvolatile memory devices. KCI Citation Count: 0