Laser annealing of Au/HfO2 bi-layers to fabricate Au nanoparticles without altering the phase of HfO2 for applications in SERS and memory devices

Spatially Controlled Generation and Probing of Random Telegraph Noise in Metal Nanocrystal Embedded HfO2 Using Defect Nanospectroscopy

“…Interestingly, the use of NC in a dielectric for inducing local field asymmetry is analogous to the use of the “lightning rod” effect to confine the location of filament formation in another technology platform, namely RRAM devices. − A consequence of this “lightning rod” effect is the creation of RTN locations over the nanocrystals is self-regulated by the breakdown event itself (i.e., the RTN locations are defined by simply performing SBD on the device). Another attribute of using the Au-NC material is that the voltage necessary to generate defects and induce a SBD is lowered by the presence of the NC …”

“…However, such variability plays a less prominent role than changes in the dielectric thickness at the top and bottom of the NC (e.g., Figure b,c) because the localized ξ-field enhancement dominates the RTN signal generation, the roughness of the metal–dielectric interface, present in any traditional high-κ stack, must be reduced to mitigate such thickness variations. These issues could be greatly reduced in future studies by optimization of the fabrication process . The process flow for metal NC-based stacks is well established for flash storage applications, and this could pave the way for practical applications.…”