Excess Random Laser Action in Memories for Hybrid Optical/Electric Logic

To surmount the scalability limitations of the nanoelectronics industry, the invention of resistance random access memory (RRAM) has drawn considerable attention in recent years for being a new-era memory. Nevertheless, the data transmission speed of RRAM is confined by virtue of its sequential reading nature. To improve upon this weakness, a hybrid optical/electric memory with I_ON/I_OFF ratio up to 10⁵ and laser-level optical signal is proposed. The device was engineered through an adroit design of integrating a random laser (RL) into the conducting bridge random access memory (CBRAM). According to the electrochemical metallization (ECM) effect of CBRAM, agglomerative silver nanoparticles form in the insulating layer during the ON/OFF switching process, which can serve as scattering centers. By adding CdSe/ZnS quantum dots (QDs) as the gain medium, a random laser system is obtained. Due to the quantum confinement effect, the device also features spectral tunable signal feedback by modulating the size of the QDs. In this study, devices with two different sizes of QDs are demonstrated such that a multiple-bit AND gate logic can be achieved. The innovation behind this RL-ECM memory might facilitate a key step toward the development of ultrahigh-speed information technology.