Abstract
We studied intrinsic resistance switching behaviour in sputter-deposited amorphous silicon suboxide (a-SiOx) films with varying degrees of roughness at the oxide-electrode interface. By combining electrical probing measurements, atomic force microscopy (AFM), and scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM), we observe that devices with rougher oxide-electrode interfaces exhibit lower electroforming voltages and more reliable switching behaviour. We show that rougher interfaces are consistent with enhanced columnar microstructure in the oxide layer. Our results suggest that columnar microstructure in the oxide will be a key factor to consider for the optimization of future SiOx-based resistance random access memory.
Highlights
Previous studies on amorphous silicon suboxide (a-SiOx) have reported extrinsic resistance switching from metallic filamentation as a result of ion migration from the electrode material[1,2,3, 14], or intrinsic conductive path formation as a result of oxygen vacancy accumulation[4, 5, 15,16,17,18]
Our results suggest that columnar microstructure is a key factor to consider for the optimization of a-SiOx-based RRAM technology
The occurence of atomic shadowing across the whole oxide layer is indicated by the roughness at the top oxide-electrode interface, which mirrors changes at the bottom oxide-electrode interface
Summary
Previous studies on a-SiOx have reported extrinsic resistance switching from metallic filamentation as a result of ion migration from the electrode material[1,2,3, 14], or intrinsic conductive path formation as a result of oxygen vacancy accumulation[4, 5, 15,16,17,18]. In the latter case, switching behaviour varies greatly between devices. Our results suggest that columnar microstructure is a key factor to consider for the optimization of a-SiOx-based RRAM technology
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