Impedance spectroscopy characterization of resistance switching NiO thin films prepared through atomic layer deposition

Abstract

To understand electrical/dielectric phenomena and the origins of bistable resistive switching, impedance spectroscopy was applied to NiO thin films prepared through atomic layer deposition. The dc current-voltage characteristics of the NiO thin films were also determined. Frequency-dependent characterizations indicated that the switching and memory phenomena in NiO thin films did not originate from the non-Ohmic effect at the electrode/NiO interfaces but from the bulk-related responses, i.e., from an electrocomposite where highly conducting components are distributed in the insulating NiO matrix. Low dielectric constants and bias-independent capacitance appeared to corroborate the bulk-based responses in resistive switching in NiO thin films.

Nonpolar resistance switching of metal/binary-transition-metal oxides/metal sandwiches: Homogeneous/inhomogeneous transition of current distribution

“…5. The model postulates that the bulk of oxide would become a conductive region, 26 after the electroforming, with e.g., a lot of conductive filaments, domains, or anything conductive, but the total current flow could be controlled by the faucet located at the high resistance interface. The faucet can be regarded a tip of a particular filament reached to the electrode, or a conductive grain/domain penetrating the interface barrier.…”

“…Since around the year of 2000, there is a renewed interest in this area that was prompted by a new generation of experimental 12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30 and theoretical works, 31,32,33,34,35,36 which have rekindled the long-running controversy on the mechanism behind the resistance switching phenomena of the electroformed sandwich. We demonstrate in the present work that binary transition-metal oxide (TMO)-based sandwiches show unique characteristics such as nonpolar switching, non-volatile threshold switching, and current-voltage duality, which can be assigned to a different category from those of the long-time-studied Al 2 O 3 -based and SiO x -based sandwiches.…”

Overview of emerging semiconductor non-volatile memories

“…After that, a lot of materials such as NiO [47,48,49,50] [75,76,77], and GeO [78,79,80] are proposed as other candidates. Most of reports use Pt as an electrode but papers using other metals like Ru, Ni, and IrO 2 are increasing.…”

Role of interface structure and chemistry in resistive switching of NiO nanocrystals on SrTiO3

“…8 In addition, its fast switching speeds and low energy consumption 9 makes NiO a viable candidate for next generation resistive random access memories (RRAMs). The demand for high-density memories has concentrated on RS materials with scalable dimensions, such as ultra-thin films, 10,11 nanowires, 12, 13 and nanocrystals. 1 Consequently, many of the RS experiments have been performed on nanoscale NiO.…”