Study of Ferrocene/Silicon hybrid memories: Influence of the chemical linkers and device thermal stability

In this paper we propose an experimental and theoretical analysis of hybrid Ferrocene/Si memory structures. Two main aspects are studied: the influence of the chemical linker length on Ferrocene/Silicon electron transfer rate, and the thermal stability of the hybrid devices. X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy was used to analyse the chemical structure of the molecular layers. Cyclic Voltammetry and impedance spectroscopy were employed to study the charge transfer dependence on the molecular linker. Impedance tests allowed us to evaluate the thermal stability of the molecular memories. The devices were submitted to different annealing temperatures and annealing times. The degradation of the molecular layer and the parasitic oxidation of the device active areas allowed us to explain results. Finally the main molecular parameters were computed through Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations.