R&D: ZnO Nanoparticle-Induced Performance Enhancement of Coumarin-Based NVM Device

ACS Applied Engineering Materials has published an article written by Rahul Deb, Farhana Yasmin Rahman, Surajit Sarkar, Hritinava Banik, Thin Film and Nanoscience Laboratory, Department of Physics, Tripura University, Suryamaninagar, West Tripura, Agartala 799022, Tripura, India, Pabitra Kumar Paul, Department of Physics, Jadavpur University, Jadavpur, Kolkata 700032, India, Debajyoti Bhattacharjee, Thin Film and Nanoscience Laboratory, Department of Physics, Tripura University, Suryamaninagar, West Tripura, Agartala 799022, Tripura, India, Khuloud A. Alibrahim, Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh 11671, Saudi Arabia, Abdullah N. Alodhayb, Department of Physics and Astronomy, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia, and Syed Arshad Hussain, Thin Film and Nanoscience Laboratory, Department of Physics, Tripura University, Suryamaninagar, West Tripura, Agartala 799022, Tripura, India.

Abstract: “Resistive switching memory devices based on organic as well as organic–inorganic hybrid materials are emerging as viable candidates for post-Moore nonvolatile memory applications. In this article, we report a nonvolatile write-once-read-many (WORM) resistive switching memory device (Al/7HNO3C/ITO) based on a coumarin derivative 7-hydroxy-N-octadecyl coumarin-3-carboxamide (7HNO3C). The device yield, retention time, read endurance, and memory window of the designed memory device were found to be 36.11%, 4 × 10³ s, 1270 cycles, and ∼10², respectively. ZnO nanoparticles were synthesized and incorporated into the active layer of the coumarin-based device in order to enhance the memory performance of the device. The ZnO-incorporated device showed overall improvement in terms of device yield (83.33%), retention time (experimentally 3 × 10⁴ s, extrapolated 10 years), read endurance (9930 cycles), and memory window (∼10³) along with a significant decrease in the device-to-device variability. Moreover, density functional theory (DFT) studies and temperature-dependent measurements have revealed that charge transfer and oxygen vacancy filament formation were the key mechanisms behind such an observed memory behavior.“