Carbon nitride supported silver nanoparticles: A potential system for non-volatile memory application with high ON-OFF ratio

The graphitic carbon nitride (gCN) supported silver nanoparticles has been synthesized using a single-step borohydride reduction technique. The silver-carbon nitride (Ag-gCN) composite displayed electronic memory effect based on conductance switching. The current-voltage characteristic of the device is fitted with the Poole-Frenkel emission for the OFF-state, whereas, the ON-state fitted with the Schottky emission. To determine the endurance of ‘ON’ and ‘OFF’ states of the system, the device was subjected to 1.0 V read pulse for 0.2 s time period with a duty-cycle of 50% for 103 cycles. The device exhibited excellent endurance stability with ON to OFF ratio of 10⁸. To demonstrate the nonvolatile behaviour of the device, the system was subjected to 1.0 V read pulse for 0.1 s, after every 60 s, with the duty-cycle of 0.16% for more than 10³s. The system demonstrated that the power drops does not have any impact on the either ‘ON’ or ‘OFF’ state.