Capacitance and conductance characterization of ferrocene-containing self-assembled monolayers on silicon surfaces for memory applications

Self-assembled monolayers of 4-ferrocenylbenzyl alcohol attached to silicon provided the basis for electrolyte-molecule-silicon capacitors. Characterization by conventional capacitance and conductance techniques showed very high capacitance and conductance peaks near ∼0.6 V associated with charging and discharging of electrons into and from discrete levels in the monolayer owing to the presence of the redox-active ferrocenes. The reversible charge trapping of these molecules suggest their potential application in memory devices. Due to the molecular scalability and low-power operation, molecular-silicon hybrid devices may be strong candidates for next-generation electronic devices.