CHARGING CHARACTERISTICS OF Ru NANOCRYSTALS EMBEDDED IN Al2O3 MATRIX PREPARED BY USING THE INITIAL GROWTH STAGE OF Ru PLASMA-ENHANCED ATOMIC LAYER DEPOSITION

• Published in: Journal of Ceramic Processing Research Vol. 13; no. 3; pp. 338 - 342
• Main Authors: Kwack, W-S, Choi, H-J, Choi, W-C, Oh, H-R, Shin, S-Y, Moon, K I, Kwak, J-Y, Jeong, Y-K, Kwon, S-H
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 청정에너지연구소 01.06.2012
• Subjects: Aluminum oxide; Ceramics; Density; Deposition; Electric potential; Metal oxide semiconductors; Nanocrystals; Voltage; 재료공학
• ISSN: 1229-9162; 2672-152X
• DOI: 10.36410/jcpr.2012.13.3.338

Ru nanocrystal layers were prepared on Al2O3/Si substrates by controlling the initial growth stage of Ru plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PE-ALD). The spatial density and average size of the Ru nanocrystals were controlled by the number of deposition cycles during the Ru PE-ALD. When the number of deposition cycles reached 60, the maximum spatial density and average diameter of the Ru nanocrystals were 2.5 x 10 exp(12)/cm2 and 3.8 nm, respectively. In order to measure the electrical characteristics of the nanocrystal floating-gate memory, a metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) structure (p-type Si/Al2O3/Ru nanocrystal layer/Al2O3/Pt) was fabricated without breaking the vacuum. The capacitance-voltage measurement of the MOS structure revealed that the incorporation of a Ru nanocrystal layer resulted in a large flatband voltage shift (4.1 V) at a sweep range of -5 to 5 V, which corresponded to a charge spatial density of 1.22 x 10 exp(-6) C/cm2. Therefore, the initial stage of Ru PE-ALD can be exploited for the next-generation of floating-gate memory cells.