Fabrication of Highly Stable Non-Volatile Memory Device Using Plasma-Polymerisation of Hexamethyldisiloxane with Graphene Quantum Dots

We demonstrated the fabrication of a highly stable non-volatile memory (NVM) device using pulsed radiofrequency (rf) plasma polymerization and a simple solution route. The two-terminal NVM devices were fabricated based on a metal-insulator-metal (MIM) structure consisting of graphene quantum dots (GQDs) embedded in hexamethyldisiloxane (HMDSO) dielectric layers. GQDs, the charge trapping layer, and the top contacts were formed by spin coating and spray coating methods. Whereas, the dielectric layers were deposited using pulsed rf plasma polymerization as it is a no thermal stressed induced method to deposit the insulator layers and does not disturb the deposited charge trapping nanoparticles. The current-voltage (I-V) curves showed highly reproducible bistable current behavior with the presence of a hysteresis window when measured at room temperature. The fabricated NVM memory devices were reprogrammable for multiple times with a distinct ON/OFF ratio of 10³. Various conduction mechanisms were proposed based on the obtained I-V data.