Effect of Top Electrode Material on Resistive Switching Properties of $\hbox{ZrO}_{2}$ Film Memory Devices

Abstract

The influence of top electrode material on the resistive switching properties of ZrO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> -based memory film using Pt as a bottom electrode was investigated in this letter. In comparison with Pt/ZrO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> /Pt and Al/ZrO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> /Pt devices, the Ti/ZrO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> /Pt device exhibits different resistive switching current-voltage (I- V) curve, which can be traced and reproduced by a dc voltage more than 1000 times only showing a little decrease of resistance ratio between high and low resistance states. Furthermore, the broad dispersions of resistive switching characteristics in the Pt/ZrO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> /Pt and Al/ZrO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> /Pt devices are generally observed during successive resistive switching, but those dispersions are suppressed by the device using Ti as a top electrode. The reliability results, such as cycling endurance and continuous readout test, are also presented. The write-read-erase-read operations can be over 10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">4</sup> cycles without degradation. No data loss is found upon successive readout after performing various endurance cycles