No Arabic abstract
In recent years, resistive RAM often referred to as memristor is actively pursued as a replacement for nonvolatile-flash memory due to its superior characteristics such as high density, scalability, low power operation, high endurance, and fast operating speed. However, one of the challenges that need to be overcome is the loss of retention for both ON- and OFF-states; the retention loss. While various models are proposed to explain the retention loss in memristors consisting of a switching layer, in this paper, we propose that the nucleation of clusters made of electrical charges, charge-clusters, in the switching layer acts as a potential root cause for the retention loss. The nucleation results from localized electric-field produced intermittently during cyclic switching operations. We use the phase-field method to illustrate how the nucleation of charge-clusters gives rise to the retention loss. Our results suggest that the degree at which the retention loss arises is linked to the number of cyclic switching operations since the probability at which nucleation centers form increases with the number of cycle switching operations, which is consistent with a range of experimental findings previously reported.
Ferroelectric field-effect transistors (Fe-FETs) with ferroelectric hafnium oxide (FE HfO2) as gate insulator are being extensively explored as a promising device candidate for three-dimensional (3D) NAND memory application. FE HfO2 exhibits long retention over 10 years, high endurance over 1012 cycles, high speed with sub-ns polarization switching, and high remnant polarization of 10-30 {mu}C/cm2. However, the performance of Fe-FETs is known to be much worse than FE HfO2 capacitors, which is not completely understood. In this work, we developed a comprehensive Fe-FET model based on a charge balance framework. The role of charge balance and the impact of leakage-assist-switching mechanism on the memory characteristics of Fe-FETs with M/FE/DE/S (Metal/Ferroelectric/Dielectric/Semiconductor) gate stack is studied. It is found that the FE/DE interface and DE layer instead of FE layer is critical to determine the memory characteristics of Fe-FETs, and experimental Fe-FETs can be well explained by this model, where the discrepancy between FE capacitors and Fe-FETs are successfully understood.
We address the issue of inter-particle dipolar interactions in the context of magnetic hyperthermia. More precisely, the main question dealt with here is concerned with the conditions under which the specific absorption rate is enhanced or reduced by dipolar interactions. For this purpose, we propose a theory for the calculation of the AC susceptibility, and thereby the specific absorption rate, for a monodisperse two-dimensional assembly of nanoparticles with oriented anisotropy, in the presence of a DC magnetic field, in addition to the AC magnetic field. We also study the competition between the dipolar interactions and the DC field, both in the transverse and longitudinal configurations. In both cases, we find that the specific absorption rate has a maximum at some critical DC field that depends on the inter-particle separation. In the longitudinal setup, this critical field falls well within the range of experiments.
We present a theory and experiment demonstrating optical readout of charge and spin in a single InAs/GaAs self-assembled quantum dot. By applying a magnetic field we create the filling factor 2 quantum Hall singlet phase of the charged exciton. Increasing or decreasing the magnetic field leads to electronic spin-flip transitions and increasing spin polarization. The increasing total spin of electrons appears as a manifold of closely spaced emission lines, while spin flips appear as discontinuities of emission lines. The number of multiplets and discontinuities measures the number of carriers and their spin. We present a complete analysis of the emission spectrum of a single quantum dot with N=4 electrons and a single hole, calculated and measured in magnetic fields up to 23 Tesla.
At the LaAlO$_3$-SrTiO$_3$ interface, electronic phase transitions can be triggered by modulation of the charge carrier density, making this system an excellent prospect for the realization of versatile electronic devices. Here, we report repeatable transistor operation in locally gated LaAlO$_3$-SrTiO$_3$ field-effect devices of which the LaAlO$_3$ dielectric is only four unit cells thin, the critical thickness for conduction at this interface. This extremely thin dielectric allows a very efficient charge modulation of ${sim}3.2times10^{13}$ cm$^{-2}$ within a gate-voltage window of $pm1$ V, as extracted from capacitance-voltage measurements. These also reveal a large stray capacitance between gate and source, presenting a complication for nanoscale device operation. Despite the small LaAlO$_3$ thickness, we observe a negligible gate leakage current, which we ascribe to the extension of the conducting states into the SrTiO$_3$ substrate.
We study the influence of epitaxial strain on the electronic properties of InAs/GaSb composite quantum wells (CQWs), host structures for quantum spin Hall insulators, by transport measurements and eight-band $mathbf{kcdot p}$ calculations. Using different substrates and buffer layer structures for crystal growth, we prepare two types of samples with vastly different strain conditions. CQWs with a nearly strain-free GaSb layer exhibit a resistance peak at the charge neutrality point that reflects the opening of a topological gap in the band-inverted regime. In contrast, for CQWs with 0.50% biaxial tensile strain in the GaSb layer, semimetallic behavior indicating a gap closure is found for the same degree of band inversion. Additionally, with the tensile strain, the boundary between the topological and nontopological regimes is located at a larger InAs thickness. Eight-band $mathbf{kcdot p}$ calculations reveal that tensile strain in GaSb not only shifts the phase boundary but also significantly modifies the band structure, which can result in the closure of an indirect gap and make the system semimetallic even in the topological regime. Our results thus provide a global picture of the topological-nontopological phase diagram as a function of layer thicknesses and strain.