Al2O3–Cu2O composite charge-trapping nonvolatile memory

Abstract

In this work, we have fabricated and thoroughly characterized dielectric-stacked memory devices with Al2O3–Cu2O composites as the charge trapping layer which are prepared by using atomic layer deposition and RF-magnetron sputtering techniques. The devices exhibit a large memory window of 13.27 V and a density of the trapped charges of 9.37 × 1012 cm−2 at a working voltage of ±11 V. The microstructural observations by using high resolution transmission electron microscopy and the analysis on X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy indicate that the strong charge-trapping ability of Al2O3–Cu2O composite should be ascribed to the occurrence of Cu2+, resulted by the inter-diffusion at the interface of Cu2O/Al2O3. Such an interesting composite layer has very attractive application in nonvolatile memory.