Reduction of core in cage protein for application to electron device

For application to floating nanodots gate memory, ferritin core, ferrihydrite nanodot, array was made and reduced to be conductive. Ammonia plasma treatment was employed to reduce the ferrihydrite cores. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis confirmed that the plasma treated cores embedded in a SiN film are successfully reduced from ferrihydrite to metal iron. It was elucidated that hydrogen radicals or ions in the plasma combine with oxygen atoms in the core and, consequently, the core is reduced to a conductive state. Transmission electron microscope analysis before and after the treatment showed that the reduced core size was smaller than ferrihydrite core by approximately 2 nm, which is consistent with theoretical calculation of the shrink size accompanying core reduction to α-Fe. The plasma treated cores embedded in SiO₂ film are found to be iron oxides, which indicates that the metal iron nanodots are vulnerable to oxygen and easy to be reoxidized.