Publikationsrepositorium - Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf

ReRAM devices based on TiO2 seems to be a promising candidate for the next generation memory storage systems.
We will compare thermal oxidation of Ti films and DC magnetron sputtering for the preparation of TiO2 thin films in terms of crystallinity and resistive switching.
The oxidation process of 100nm Ti on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si substrates leads to polycrystalline rutile TiO2 layers. In contrast to this with dc magnetron sputtering on Nb:STO substrates, it was possible to grow epitaxial anatase TiO2 layers.
Subsequent I-V characterization revealed interesting differences between both structures. In case of the rutile films unipolar switching, which is supposed to correlate with a filamentary mechanism and the phase change between TiO2 and so called Magnéli phases TinO2n-1, mostly n = 4 or 5 [1]. The epitaxial anatase films showed the bipolar switching mode, which is in literature correlated with the modification of the metal/oxide interface due to the drift of oxygen vacancies in an applied electric field [2].
Furthermore retention measurements were performed, which showed opposite behavior for the unipolar and bipolar switching mode. This result could be attributed to the different mechanisms behind.

The project is funded by the Initiative and Networking Fund of the Helmholtz Association (VH-VI-422).

[1] Deok-Hwang Kwon et al., “Atomic structure of conducting nanofilaments in TiO2 resistive switching memory”, Nature Nanotechnology, vol.5, pp.148 – 153 (2010)

[2] J. Joshua Yang et al., “Memristive switching mechanism for metal/oxide/metal nanodevices”, Nature Nanotechnology, vol.3, pp.429 – 433 (2008)