Nanostructure band engineering of gadolinium oxide nanocrystal memory by CF4 plasma treatment

Nanostructure band engineering accomplished by CF4 plasma treatment on Gd2O3 nanocrystal memory was investigated. Under the CF4 plasma treatment, the fluorine was incorporated into the Gd2O3 film and resulted in the modification of energy-band. A physical model was proposed to explain the relationship between the built-in electric field in Gd2O3 nanostructure and the improved program/erase (P/E) efficiency and data retention characteristics. The memory window of the Gd2O3–NC memory with CF4 plasma treatment and postplasma annealing was increased to 3.4 V after 104 P/E cycling. It is demonstrated that the Gd2O3–NC memory with nanostructure band engineering is promising for future nonvolatile memory application.