Electrical conduction in 10 nm-thin polysilicon wires from 4K to 400K and their operation for hybrid memory

This paper reports on the experimental investigation of conduction mechanisms in gated nanograins ultra-thin polysilicon nanowires (polySiNW) over a wide range of temperature: from 4K up to 400K. Some irregular Coulomb oscillations (CO) are observed at temperatures lower than 200K showing several period widths due to the random mixture in grain size (5-20nm). Remarkable results consist in more effective oscillations observed at higher drain voltages and, especially, at intermediate range of temperatures (between 50K and 150K). Finally, the V-shape (ambipolar) IDS-VGS characteristic and hysteresis of the polySiNW (maintained with high reproducibility) is exploited for building novel hybrid memory circuit cell.