Filament Geometry Induced Bipolar, Complementary and Unipolar Resistive Switching under the Same Set Current Compliance in Pt/SiOx/TiN

• DOI: 10.1038/srep15374
• Publication Date: 2015-10-22T09:18:18Z
• Authors: Dong-Hyeok Lim; Ga-Yeon Kim; Jin-Ho Song; Kwang-Sik Jeong; Dae-Hong Ko; Mann-Ho Cho
• Keywords: 0103 physical sciences; 01 natural sciences; Article

AbstractThe decidedly unusual co-occurrence of bipolar, complementary and unipolar resistive switching (BRS, CRS and URS, respectively) behavior under the same high set current compliance (set-CC) is discussed on the basis of filament geometry in a Pt/SiOx/TiN stack. Set-CC-dependent scaling behavior with relations Ireset ~ R0–αand Vreset ~ R0–βdifferentiates BRS under low set-CC from other switching behaviors under high set-CC due to a low α and β involving a narrow filamentary path. Because such co-occurrence is observed only in the case of a high α and β involving a wide filamentary path, such a path can be classified into three different geometries according to switching behavior in detail. From the cyclic switching and a model simulation, we conclude that the reset of BRS originates from a narrower filamentary path near the top electrode than that of CRS due to the randomness of field-driven migration even under the same set-CC. Also, we conclude that URS originates from much narrower inversed conical filamentary path. Therefore, filament-geometry-dependent electric field and/or thermal effects can precisely describe the entire switching behaviors in this experiment.