Synthesis of nanodiamonds using liquid-phase laser ablation of graphene and its application in resistive random access memory

Abstract Nanodiamonds (ND) are carbon particles with a size less than 100 nm, formed by sp3 hybridization of carbon atoms. They have attracted considerable research interest for their potential applications ranging from sensing and bioimaging to quantum computation due to its physical, chemical and surface characteristics. In this work, we report the synthesis of ND from graphene dispersions by liquid-phase laser ablation technique, using an Nd: YAG laser. ND samples exhibit a characteristic photo-absorption at 226 nm, and it shows an excitation dependent emission similar to the carbon dots. Employing Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy, the bandgap of ND is calculated to be 5.2 eV, and the work-function is around 4.2 eV. Further, we fabricated Resistive switching devices with ND film as the active layer, fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) as the bottom and silver (Ag) as the top electrodes. These FTO/ND/Ag devices show excellent memory characteristics with an on-off ratio of 104 and reproducible cycling characteristics, demonstrating its potential for high-density memory applications.