Improved resistive switching characteristics of a multi-stacked HfO₂/Al₂O₃/HfO₂ RRAM structure for neuromorphic and synaptic applications: experimental and computational study

Abstract

Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) was used for a tri-layer structure (HfO₂/Al₂O₃/HfO₂) at low temperature over an Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) transparent electrode. First, the microstructure of the fabricated TaN/HfO₂/Al₂O₃/HfO₂/ITO RRAM device was examined by the cross-sectional High-Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy (HRTEM). Then, Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS) was performed to probe compositional mapping. The bipolar resistive switching mode of the device was confirmed through SET/RESET characteristic plots for 100 cycles as a function of applied biasing voltage. An endurance test was performed for 100 DC switching cycles @0.2 V wherein; data retention was found up to 10⁴ s. Moreover, for better insight into the charge conduction mechanism in tri-layer HfO₂/Al₂O₃/HfO₂, based on oxygen vacancies (V_OX), total density of states (TDOS), partial density of states (PDOS) and isosurface three-dimensional charge density analysis was performed using WEIN2k and VASP simulation packages under Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof _Generalized Gradient approximation (PBE-GGA). The experimental and theoretical outcomes can help in finding proper stacking of the active resistive switching (RS) layer for resistive random-access memory (RRAM) applications.