Influence of near-surface and volume real structure on the electronic properties of SrTiO₃ MIM structures

Abstract

Perovskite-type transition metal oxides have great potential as storage material in resistive random-access memory (RRAM) devices. Typical non-volatile memory cells are realized in metal-insulator-metal (MIM) stacks with insulator thicknesses of few nanometers. We report on the investigation of single-crystal SrTiO3 to understand the role of volume and interface real structure for the electrical conductivity in such materials. Conductivity in SrTiO3 single crystals was established by a reducing high vacuum (HV) annealing introducing charged oxygen vacancies acting as donor centers. Titanium electrodes are evaporated on both crystal faces to obtain an MIM element.