Abstract
The remarkable physical properties of two-dimensional (2D) semiconducting materials such as molybdenum disulfide ($MoS_2$) and tungsten disulfide ($WS_2$) etc. have attracted considerable attentions for future high-performance electronic and optoelectronic devices. The ongoing studies of $MoS_2$ based nonvolatile memories have been demonstrated by worldwide researchers. The opening hysteresis in transfer characteristics have been revealed by different charge confining layer, for instance, few-layer graphene, $MoS_2$, metallic nanocrystal, hafnium oxide, and guanine. However, limited works built their nonvolatile memories using entirely of assembled 2D crystals. This is important in aspect view of large-scale manufacture and vertical integration for future memory device engineering. We report $WS_2$ based nonvolatile memories utilizing functional van der Waals heterostructure in which multi-layered graphene is encapsulated between $SiO_2$ and hexagonal boron nitride (hBN). We experimentally observed that, large memory window (20 V) allows to reveal high on-/off-state ratio (>$10^3$). Moreover, the devices manifest perfect retention of 13% charge loss after 10 years due to large graphene/hBN barrier height. Interestingly, the performance of our memories is drastically better than ever published work related to $MoS_2$ and black phosphorus flash memory technology.