Charge-trapping characteristics of BaTiO3 with and without nitridation for nonvolatile memory applications

•Charge-trapping characteristics of nitrided BaTiO3 have been investigated by comparison with pure BaTiO3.•Low operating voltage as well as high operating speeds can be achieved for both of the devices.•The device with nitrided BaTiO3 as charge-trapping layer shows better performance than the one with pure BaTiO3.

The charge-trapping characteristics of BaTiO3 with and without nitrogen incorporation were investigated based on Al/Al2O3/BaTiO3/SiO2/Si (MONOS) capacitors. The physical properties of the high-k films were analyzed by transmission electron microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Compared with the MONOS capacitor with BaTiO3 as charge-trapping layer, the one with nitrided BaTiO3 showed higher program speed even at lower operating voltage (4.3 V at +8 V for 100 μs), better endurance property and smaller charge loss (charge loss of 10.6% after 104 s at 85 °C), due to the nitrided BaTiO3 film exhibiting higher charge-trapping efficiency caused by nitrogen incorporation and suppressed leakage induced by nitrogen passivation.