We have studied resistive bistability (memory) effects in junctions based on metal oxides, with a focus on sample-to-sample reproducibility which is necessary for the use of such junctions as crosspoint devices of hybrid CMOS/nanoelectronic circuits. Few-nm-thick layers of NbOx, CuOx and TiOx have been formed by thermal and plasma oxidation, at various deposition and oxidation conditions, both with or without rapid thermal post-annealing (RTA). The resistive bistability effect has been observed for all these materials, with particularly high endurance (over 1000 switching cycles) obtained for single-layer TiO2 junctions, and the best reproducibility reached for multi-layer junctions of the same material. Fabrication optimization has allowed us to improve the OFF/ON resistance ratio to about 1000, but the sample-to-sample reproducibility is so far lower than that required for large scale integration.
We report a direct observation of the microscopic origin of the bipolar resistive switching behavior in nanoscale titanium oxide films. Through a high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, an analytical TEM technique using energy-filtering transmission electron microscopy and an in situ x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, we demonstrated that the oxygen ions piled up at top interface by an oxidation-reduction reaction between the titanium oxide layer and the top Al metal electrode. We also found that the drift of oxygen ions during the on/off switching induced the bipolar resistive switch…
Using isothermal and temperature-dependent electrical measurements, we investigated the resistive switching mechanism of amorphous titanium oxide thin films deposited by a plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition method between two aluminum electrodes. We found a bipolar resistive switching behavior in the high temperature region (> 140 K), and two activation energies of shallow traps, 0.055 eV and 0.126 eV in the ohmic current regime. We also proposed that the bipolar resistive switching of amorphous TiO2 thin films is governed by the transition of conduction mode from a bulk-limited SCLC mode…
The nature of the conducting filaments in many resistive switching systems has been elusive. Through in situ transmission electron microscopy, we image the real-time formation and evolution of the filament in a silicon oxide resistive switch. The electroforming process is revealed to involve the local enrichment of silicon from the silicon oxide matrix. Semi-metallic silicon nanocrystals with structural variations from the conventional diamond cubic form of silicon are observed, which likely accounts for the conduction in the filament. The growth and shrinkage of the silicon nanocrystals in re…
The emerging paradigm of abundant-data computing requires real-time analytics on enormous quantities of data collected by a mushrooming network of sensors. Todays computing technology, however, cannot scale to satisfy such big data applications with the required throughput and energy efficiency. The next technology frontier will be monolithically integrated chips with three dimensionally interleaved memory and logic for unprecedented data bandwidth with reduced energy consumption. In this work, we exploit the atomically thin nature of the graphene edge to assemble a resistive memory stacked in…
Reversible resistive switching between high-resistance and low-resistance states in metal-oxide-metal heterostructures makes them very interesting for applications in random access memories. While recent experimental work has shown that inserting a metallic "oxygen scavenger layer" between the positive electrode and oxide improves device performance, the fundamental understanding of how the scavenger layer modifies heterostructure properties is lacking. We use density functional theory to calculate thermodynamic properties and conductance of TiN/HfO$_2$/TiN heterostructures with and without Ta…
Metallic oxides encased within Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) structures can demonstrate both unipolar and bipolar switching mechanisms, rendering them the capability to exhibit a multitude of resistive states and ultimately function as memory elements. Identifying the vital physical mechanisms behind resistive switching can enable these devices to be utilized more efficiently, reliably and in the long-term. In this paper, we present a new approach for analysing resistive switching by modelling the active core of two terminal devices as 2D and 3D grid circuit breaker networks. This model is emplo…
Quantum transport properties of tantalum-oxide resistive switching filaments
Budapest University of Technology and Economics（布达佩斯技术与经济大学）；Institute of Technical Physics and Materials Science, Centre for Energy Research（技术物理与材料科学研究所，能源研究中心）；MTA-BME Correlated van der Waals Structures Momentum Research Group（匈牙利科学院-布达佩斯技术与经济大学关联范德华结构动力学研究组）；ELKH-BME Condensed Matter Research Group（匈牙利研究与创新院-布达佩斯技术与经济大学凝聚态研究组）；Institute of Electromagnetic Fields, ETH Zurich（苏黎世联邦理工学院电磁场研究所）
For the clear understanding of the role of interface reaction between top metal electrode and titanium oxide layer, we investigated the effects of various top metals on the resistive switching in Metal/a-TiO2/Al devices. The top Al device with the highest oxygen affinity showed the best memory performance, which is attributed to the fast formation of interfacial layer (Al-Ti-O), as confirmed by high resolution transmission electron microscopy and electron dispersive spectroscopy. Hence, we concluded that the interface layer, created by the redox reaction between top metal electrode and TiO2 la…
We report the study of metal-STO-metal memristors where the doping concentration in STO can be fine-tuned through electric field migration of oxygen vacancies. In this tunnel junction device, the evolution of the Density Of States (DoS) can be followed continuously across the Metal-Insulator Transition (MIT). At very low dopant concentration, the junction displays characteristic signatures of discrete dopants levels. As the dopant concentration increases, the semiconductor band gap fills in but a soft Coulomb gap remains. At even higher doping, a transition to a metallic state occurs where the…
The intrinsically rectifying-resistive switching (IR-RS) has been regarded as an effective way to address the crosstalk issue, due to the Schottky diodes formed at the metal/oxide interfaces in the ON states to suppress the sneak current at reverse biases. In this letter, we report for the first time another type of IR-RS that is related to the built-in homojunction. The IR-RS study was usually limited to macroscopic samples with micron-order pad-type electrodes, while this work is on NiO nanodots fabricated with ultrathin anodic-aluminum-oxide templates and acting as nanoscaled analogs of rea…
In this work, we evaluate a multitude of metal-oxide bi-layers and demonstrate the benefits from increased memory stability via multibit memory operation. We introduce a programming methodology that allows for operating metal-oxide memristive devices as multibit memory elements with highly packed yet clearly discernible memory states. We finally demonstrate a 5.5-bit memory cell (47 resistive states) with excellent retention and power consumption performance. This paves the way for neuromorphic and non-volatile memory applications.
We present the first measurements of Hall conductivity utilizing a new torque magnetometry method designed for insulators. A Corbino disk exhibits a magnetic dipole moment proportional to Hall conductivity when voltage is applied across a test material. This magnetic dipole moment can be measured through torque magnetometry. The symmetry of this contactless technique allows for the measurement of Hall conductivity in previously inaccessible materials. Finally, a low-temperature noise bound, the lack of systematic errors on dummy devices, and a measurement of the Hall conductivity of sputtered …
Self-ordered nanotubular titania TiO2-NT with outer tube diameter of 45 nm are synthesized using the anodic oxidation of titanium foil. Four sets of memristors with 100 $μm$ diameter based on Ti/TiO2-NT/Au sandwich structures with an oxide layer thickness of 80, 120, 160 and 200 nm are fabricated. Current-voltage (CV) characteristics for the obtained samples in the static and dynamic operation modes are studied. Resistance in high and low resistance states is estimated. Basing on the analysis of the CV characteristics in dynamic mode (> 14 000 switchings) a prospective of use for synthesized T…
We investigate a way to suppress high-frequency coupling between a gate and low-dimensional electron systems in the gigahertz range by measuring the velocity of edge magnetoplasmons (EMPs) in InAs quantum Hall systems.We compare the EMPvelocity in three samples with different electromagnetic environments-one has a highly resistive zinc oxide (ZnO) top gate, another has a normal metal (Ti/Au) top gate, and the other does not have a gate. The measured EMP velocity in the ZnO gate sample is one order of magnitude larger than that in the Ti/Au gate sample and almost the same as that in the ungated…
