Reset First Resistive Switching in Ni1-xO Thin Films as Charge Transfer Insulator Deposited by Reactive RF Magnetron Sputtering

Dae-Woo Kim; Tae-Ho Kim; Jae-Yeon Kim; Hyun-Chul Sohn

doi:10.3390/nano12132231

Reset First Resistive Switching in Ni_1-xO Thin Films as Charge Transfer Insulator Deposited by Reactive RF Magnetron Sputtering

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2022 Jun 29;12(13):2231. doi: 10.3390/nano12132231.

Authors

Dae-Woo Kim¹, Tae-Ho Kim^{1

2}, Jae-Yeon Kim¹, Hyun-Chul Sohn¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Yonsei University, Seoul 03722, Korea.
² Lam Research, Daesan-ro 288, Icheon-si 17336, Korea.

Abstract

Reset-first resistive random access memory (RRAM) devices were demonstrated for off-stoichiometric Ni_1-xO thin films deposited using reactive sputtering with a high oxygen partial pressure. The Ni_1-xO based RRAM devices exhibited both unipolar and bipolar resistive switching characteristics without an electroforming step. Auger electron spectroscopy showed nickel deficiency in the Ni_1-xO films, and X-ray photoemission spectroscopy showed that the Ni³⁺ valence state in the Ni_1-xO films increased with increasing oxygen partial pressure. Conductive atomic force microscopy showed that the conductivity of the Ni_1-xO films increased with increasing oxygen partial pressure during deposition, possibly contributing to the reset-first switching of the Ni_1-xO films.

Keywords: area dependence; conductivity; nickel oxide; nickel vacancy; oxygen partial pressure; reset-first resistive switching; resistive random access memory.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, Korea under the Industrial Strategic Technology Development Program (Grant no. 100680075).