Origin of Hopping Conduction in Graphene-Oxide-Doped Silicon Oxide Resistance Random Access Memory Devices

Abstract

In this letter, a double-active-layer (Zr:SiO <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">x</i> /C:SiO <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">x</i> ) resistive switching memory device with a high on/off resistance ratio and small working current (0.02 mA), is presented. Through the analysis of Raman and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy spectra, we find that graphene oxide exists in the C:SiO <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">x</i> layer. It can be observed that Zr:SiO <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">x</i> /C:SiO <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">x</i> structure has superior switching performance and higher stability compared with the single-active-layer (Zr:SiO <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">x</i> ) structure, which is attributed to the existence of graphene oxide flakes formed during the sputter process. <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">I</i> - <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">V</i> characteristics under a series of increasing temperature were analyzed to testify the carrier hopping distance variation, which is further verified by our graphene oxide redox reaction model.