Study of the Resistive Switching Characteristics and Mechanisms of Pt/CeOx/TiN Structure for RRAM Applications

Abstract

Pt (top)/CeOx/ TiN (bottom) sandwich structures with nonstoichiometric CeO_x (1.3 < x < 2) films were fabricated by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering system. Their reproducible resistive switching characteristics were study systematically for resistive random access memory (RRAM) applications. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy was performed to analyze the mechanisms of resistive switching (RS) of CeO_x-based films. The results show that both the oxygen vacancies in the CeO_x film and the interfacial TiON layer formed between the dielectric CeO_x film and the TiN bottom electrode play important roles in the observed RS behaviors.

KeyWords:

• CeO_x film
• Resistive switching characteristic
• Switching mechanism

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National High Technology Development Program of China (2008AA031402), Foundation Project by Science and Technology Council of Shanghai (Grant No. 1052nm07200).