Abstract
ReRAM is a compelling candidate for next-generation non-volatile memory owing to its various advantages. However, fluctuation of operation parameters are critical weakness occurring failures in ‘reading’ and ‘writing’ operations. To enhance the stability, it is important to understand the mechanism of the devices. Although numerous studies have been conducted using AFM or TEM, the understanding of the device operation is still limited due to the destructive nature and/or limited imaging range of the previous methods. Here, we propose a new hybrid device composed of ReRAM and LED enabling us to monitor the conducting filament (CF) configuration on the device scale during resistive switching. We directly observe the change in CF configuration across the whole device area through light emission from our hybrid device. In contrast to former studies, we found that minor CFs were formed earlier than major CF contributing to the resistive switching. Moreover, we investigated the substitution of a stressed major CF with a fresh minor CF when large fluctuation of operation voltage appeared after more than 50 times of resistive switching in atmospheric condition. Our results present an advancement in the understanding of ReRAM operation mechanism, and a step toward stabilizing the fluctuations in ReRAM switching parameters.
Highlights
To examine the dynamics of light emission spots during resistive switching, we suggest the model illustrated in Fig. 3, which is based on observations of randomly grown conducting filaments (CFs) demonstrated by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and AFM in previous reports, namely the surface of the oxide thin film studied using AFM10–12 during resistive switching, and disconnected CFs near the top electrode observed at low-resistance state (LRS) using TEM7
We propose a new hybrid structure composed of a Resistive random access memory (ReRAM) and light-emitting diode (LED) that enables monitoring of the time evolution of CF configurations at the device scale during resistive switching
In contrast to former studies using in situ TEM or AFM, the change in CF configuration across the whole device area was observed in real time
Summary
The forming process of the hybrid device was first investigated using this set-up, during which a conducting path was created between the top and bottom surfaces of the NiO thin film upon application of a sufficiently large electric field. During the forming process, the light emission of the ReRAM/LED hybrid device was investigated in real time, which revealed the anomalous emergence of multiple current conduction spots.
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