ABSTRACT
Silicon (Si) nanocrystals (NCs) have attracted significant attention recently because of their intrinsic physical properties and their potential for memory applications. 1 Replacing the wide Si floating gate in the SiO2 oxide layer of traditional flash memories by Si NCs 878is an alternate design to fulfill the requirements for ultrafast data access, low power consumption, high endurance, and long time storage.2–5 However, because of limited control of the synthesis of Si nanostructures in SiO2 , NCs may form with different shapes and sizes, and at various depths from the channel-oxide interface. These fluctuations will strongly influence the NC electronic properties, thereby affecting the overall performances of the device.
