Electrochemical Oxidation Induced Multi-Level Memory in Carbon-Based Resistive Switching Devices

Paola Russo,Ming Xiao,Norman Y Zhou

doi:10.1038/s41598-018-38249-0

Abstract

In this work, we report for the first time the electrochemical oxidation as a technique to improve the electrical performances of carbon-based resistive switching devices. The devices obtained through the anodic oxidation of carbon-structures possess superior electrical performances i.e. a 3-level memory behavior and an ON/OFF ratio two order of magnitude higher than the non-oxidized carbon-based devices. It is demonstrated that the chemical composition of the carbon structures (i.e. percentage of oxygen groups, sp2 and sp3 carbon atoms) plays a key role in the improvement of the carbon-based devices. The electrochemical oxidation allows the possibility to control the oxidation degree, and therefore, to tailor the devices electrical performances. We demonstrated that the resistive switching behavior in the electrochemically oxidized devices is originated from the formation of conductive filament paths, which are built from the oxygen vacancies and structural defects of the anodic oxidized carbon materials. The novelty of this work relies on the anodic oxidation as a time- and cost-effective technique that can be employed for the engineering and improvement of the electrical performances of next generation carbon-based resistive switching devices.

Highlights

Electrochemical oxidation of carbon structures (Cs) is employed as a simple and time-effective approach for the tailoring and improvement of the performances of the carbon-based devices
The electrochemically modified material is easier to obtain than the widely used GO28, this approach could be used for the large-scale development of carbon-based memory devices and the chemical composition of other carbon materials could be tailored
The changes in the CV shape of the Cs are due to the chemical modification of their surface induced by the anodic oxidation

Summary

Introduction

Electrochemical oxidation of carbon structures (Cs) is employed as a simple and time-effective approach for the tailoring and improvement of the performances of the carbon-based devices. This technique has not been used as a tool to improve the electrical performances of carbon-based RRAM devices. It has been widely used as a technique to study the redox processes involved in the resistive switching mechanisms of different types of RRAM23–25, and to increase the electrochemical capacitance of carbon materials by the introduction of oxygen functional groups on the surface of materials[26,27]. The electrochemically modified material is easier to obtain than the widely used GO28, this approach could be used for the large-scale development of carbon-based memory devices and the chemical composition of other carbon materials (i.e. graphene, carbon nanotubes etc.) could be tailored

Methods

Results

Conclusion