Study of the interfaces in resistive switching NiO thin films deposited by both ALD and e-beam coupled with different electrodes (Si, Ni, Pt, W, TiN)

Abstract

Thin NiO films, included in a metal/resistive oxide/metal (MRM) stack, are receiving great interest, as they exhibit resistive switching when subjected to an external applied field, and can thus be implemented in a resistive random access memory (ReRAM). The electrical switching characteristic is seen to depend on the NiO/metal coupling. Therefore a characterization of the interface between NiO and the electrode is vital to optimize and get insights on the switching phenomena. In this work we deposited NiO thin films by atomic layer deposition (ALD) at 300 °C and electron beam deposition (e-beam) at 40 °C on Si, Ni, Pt, W and TiN substrates and we characterized them with X-ray reflectivity (XRR), grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXRD) and time of flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS). Depending on the growth process, we found an influence of the substrate on the NiO film roughness, which exhibits values in the 1.2–6.2 nm range. NiO electron density was 1.35–1.96 e −Å −3 spread around the nominal value of 1.83 e − Å −3 for bulk cubic polycrystalline NiO. X-ray diffraction showed that NiO is polycrystalline in the cubic phase. ToF-SIMS profiles confirm NiO/Metal interface sharpness and the optimal uniformity of NiO layers. Intermixing phenomena are limited or absent and the presence of contaminants, such as C, F, and Cl is very low.