Single-Hole Charging and Discharging Phenomena in Carbon Nanotube Field-Effect-Transistor-Based Nonvolatile Memory

Abstract

We have fabricated nonvolatile memory based on top-gated carbon nanotube field-effect transistors (CNTFETs). Two kinds of insulating films, SiNx and SiO2, were deposited to control the hysteresis characteristics after the removal of water molecules around the single-walled CNT channels. The interface between the SiNx and SiO2 films is expected to act as a charge storage node of nonvolatile memory. The fabricated CNTFET-based memory devices clearly exhibited not only a memory effect but also good retention characteristics for charge storage. Furthermore, single-hole charging and discharging phenomena were clearly observed in the CNTFET-based memory devices by reducing the number of carriers trapped in the interface between the SiNx and SiO2 films. These results indicate that the CNTFET-based nonvolatile memory can be potentially used to realize single-electron memory.