Ti-Induced Recovery Phenomenon of Resistive Switching in ZrO[sub 2] Thin Films

Abstract

In this study, we used W-probe directly contacted with the as-deposited films to perform the resistive switching (RS) phenomenon, and the -based device finally came to break down (defined as device). A remarkable phenomenon called "recovery" was observed, where the RS phenomenon appeared again in a broken -based device after Ti top electrode deposition. On the contrary, there was no such phenomenon while the Pt and Al top electrodes were deposited on the devices. The Ti-induced recovery phenomenon of RS could be explained by the effects of the interface layer formation. The interface layers, and , served as the oxygen reservoir and the series resistance, respectively, to provide sufficient oxygen ions for inducing the redox reaction of the conducting filament near the layer. Moreover, it also interpreted the high yield of the device. Therefore, the interface engineering of the resistive random access memory device is found very crucial to improve its performance for future commercial applications.