Nitrogen‐Doped Carbon Quantum Dots on Graphene for Field‐Effect Transistor Optoelectronic Memories

Abstract

Abstract The development of field‐effect transistor‐based (FET‐based) non‐volatile optoelectronic memories is vital toward innovations necessary to improve computer systems. In this work, for the first time, the unique charge‐trapping and charge‐retention properties of solution‐processed colloidal nitrogen‐doped carbon quantum dots (CQDs) are harnessed to achieve functional optoelectronic memories programmable by UV illumination with a multilevel writing possibility. Of particular note, long‐lasting memory function can be achieved thanks to the vast charge trapping sites provided by the N‐doped CQDs and the resultant photo‐gating effect is exercised on the graphene FET. The achieved memory can be erased by a positive gate bias which provides sufficient carriers to remove trapped charges through recombination. This study highlights the possibility to engineer high‐performance all‐carbon non‐volatile FET‐based optoelectronic memories through manipulating and coupling the charge‐trapping properties of colloidal CQDs and graphene.

Keywords

• carbon quantum dots
• field‐effect transistors
• graphene transistors
• multilevel memory
• non‐volatile memory
• optical memory