@article{e806a37b1a5c40248fa585c8cc70935c,
title = "Cubic-phase zirconia nano-island growth using atomic layer deposition and application in low-power charge-trapping nonvolatile-memory devices",
abstract = "The manipulation of matter at the nanoscale enables the generation of properties in a material that would otherwise be challenging or impossible to realize in the bulk state. Here, we demonstrate growth of zirconia nano-islands using atomic layer deposition on different substrate terminations. Transmission electron microscopy and Raman measurements indicate that the nano-islands consist of nano-crystallites of the cubic-crystalline phase, which results in a higher dielectric constant (κ ∼ 35) than the amorphous phase case (κ ∼ 20). X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements show that a deep quantum well is formed in the Al2O3/ZrO2/Al2O3 system, which is substantially different to that in the bulk state of zirconia and is more favorable for memory application. Finally, a memory device with a ZrO2 nano-island charge-trapping layer is fabricated, and a wide memory window of 4.5 V is obtained at a low programming voltage of 5 V due to the large dielectric constant of the islands in addition to excellent endurance and retention characteristics.",
keywords = "atomic layer deposition, memory devices, zirconia",
author = "Nazek El-Atab and \{Gamze Ulusoy\}, Turkan and Amir Ghobadi and Junkyo Suh and Raisul Islam and Okyay, \{Ali K.\} and Krishna Saraswat and Ammar Nayfeh",
note = "Funding Information: The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support for this work provided by the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology and the Office of Naval Research global grant N62909-16-1-2031. Nazek El-Atab acknowledges L{\textquoteright}Or{\'e}al-UNESCO 2015 For Women in Science Middle East Fellowship. Part of this work was performed at the Stanford Nanofabrication Facility (SNF). Nazek El-Atab acknowledges the efforts of Dr Michelle Rincon, Dr Uli Thumser, Raisul Islam, and Junkyo Suh in training her on the fabrication and characterization tools available at the SNF. Author contributions N E A performed the experimental work and wrote the manuscript. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements were conducted by T G U and A G. All authors interpreted the results and reviewed the manuscript. A N and K S were the mentors of the work performed. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2017 IOP Publishing Ltd.",
year = "2017",
month = oct,
day = "5",
doi = "10.1088/1361-6528/aa87e5",
language = "British English",
volume = "28",
journal = "Nanotechnology",
issn = "0957-4484",
publisher = "IOP Publishing Ltd.",
number = "44",
}