• Panda, Debashis
• Rana, Anwar Manzoor
• Jieng, Jheng Hong
• Lin, Chun An
• Ismail, Muhammad
• Nadeem, Muhammad Younus
• Chand, Umesh
• Talib, Ijaz
• Hung, Chung Jung
• Tseng, Tseung-Yuen
• Tsai, Tsung Ling
• Ahmed, Ejaz
• Huang, Chun Yang

Abstract

<p>The mechanism of forming-free bipolar resistive switching in a Zr/CeO_x/Pt device was investigated. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy and energy-dispersive spectroscopy analysis indicated the formation of a ZrO_y layer at the Zr/CeO_x interface. X-ray diffraction studies of CeO_x films revealed that they consist of nano-polycrystals embedded in a disordered lattice. The observed resistive switching was suggested to be linked with the formation and rupture of conductive filaments constituted by oxygen vacancies in the CeO_x film and in the nonstoichiometric ZrO_y interfacial layer. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy study confirmed the presence of oxygen vacancies in both of the said regions. In the low-resistance ON state, the electrical conduction was found to be of ohmic nature, while the high-resistance OFF state was governed by trap-controlled space charge-limited mechanism. The stable resistive switching behavior and long retention times with an acceptable resistance ratio enable the device for its application in future nonvolatile resistive random access memory (RRAM).</p>

Topics

• x-ray diffraction
• x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy
• Oxygen
• transmission electron microscopy
• forming
• random
• interfacial