Electronic properties of Ge nanocrystals for non volatile memory applications

Charge and discharge phenomena of Germanium nanocrystals fabricated by low pressure chemical vapor deposition are investigated by means of Capacitance-Voltage and capacitance decay measurements. The study shows fast programming and erasing times as compared with conventional devices. It is shown that the charge saturation depends on the gate voltage stress in the low electric field regime. For high gate voltages, a saturation of the stored charge is obtained, indicating that the density of trapped carriers in Ge nanocrystals is limited and depends only on the dots size. Capacitance decay measurements exhibits a very long retention time for holes as compared with silicon nanocrystal memories. This is mainly due to the barrier height for holes at the nc-Ge/(2) interface. A model for simulation of the retention kinetics has been developed and allows to extract the band alignment of the nc-Ge/SiO2/Si system. The simulation results are then used to determine the band gap energy of Ge nanocrystals. Finally, it is shown that Ge nanocrystals are very good candidates for P-type Metal Oxide Semiconductor nonvolatile memories. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.