Dipole-Driven Charge Trapping in Monolayer Janus MoSSe for Ultrathin Nonvolatile Memory Devices

Abstract The continued scaling of flash memory technologies faces challenges such as limited operation speed, poor data retention, and interface defects inherent to conventional three-dimensional architectures. Two-dimensional (2D) materials, with van der Waals interfaces and atomic-scale thickness, offer a promising pathway to overcome these limitations by enabling efficient charge modulation while minimizing surface defects. In this work, a nonvolatile 2D flash memory device is developed employing monolayer Janus MoSSe as the charge-trapping layer and hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) as an ultrathin tunneling barrier. The intrinsic structural asymmetry of Janus MoSSe induces a strong vertical dipole moment, resulting in enhanced charge trapping, deeper energy barriers, and directional polarization compared with symmetric 2D materials. Consequently, the devices exhibit outstanding retention times exceeding 10 4 s, endurance beyond 10 4 program/erase cycles, and large memory window ratios (Δ V / V G,max of 50%–70% for 10 and 6 nm h-BN, respectively), with charge-trapping rates up to 8.96 × 10 14 cm −2 s −1 . In addition, Janus MoSSe-based devices show synaptic characteristics under electrical pulses and perform recognition simulations in artificial neural networks. These findings establish a design paradigm for 2D memory devices, enabling ultrathin, flexible, and energy-efficient nonvolatile memories.