A graphene nanoribbon memory cell.

S D C1 C2 Over the past few years there has been a surge of interest in graphene, a recently isolated [ 1 ] one-atom-thick layer of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb lattice. From the application point of view this interest has mainly been driven by the high carrier mobility of graphene [ 2–4 ] which enables fabrication of fi eld-effect transistors (FETs) with much smaller channel resistance compared to their Si counterparts. [ 5 ] In this manner, the ultimate limits of Si technology expected at the sub-10 nm scale may be overcome. [ 6 ] However, due to the absence of a bandgap in graphene and the formation of electron-hole puddles, [ 7 ] graphene FETs cannot be turned off, thus limiting their application in conventional electronic circuits. Alternative approaches, which do not require the presence of a bandgap, have been followed toward the implementation of graphene-based frequency doublers, [ 8 ] logic gates, [ 9 ] integrated circuits, [ 10 ] binary phase-shift keying modulators, [ 11 ] and ferroelectric gated memories. [ 12 ] Moreover, memory devices have been realized on the basis of nanoelectromechanical breaking and switching of graphene under high vacuum conditions, which results in a very low off current. [ 13–15 ] Another strategy to increase the on/off ratio relies upon patterning of graphene nanoribbons (GNRs), wherein quantum confi nement and edge effects open a bandgap inversely proportional to the ribbon width. [ 16–18 ] Here we demonstrate a high performance GNR memory cell based on a nondestructive storage mechanism, i.e., gate voltage pulses of opposite polarity are used to switch between the distinct on and off states of the device. The memory devices were fabricated by Ar ion-beam etching (IBE) of graphene monolayers using V 2 O 5 nanofi bers as etching masks. [ 19–21 ] To this end, graphene was mechanically exfoliated from highly oriented pyrolitic graphite onto a highly doped Si substrate covered with 300 nm of SiO 2 as gate dielectric. [ 1 ] V 2 O 5 nanofi bers were then deposited from