Influence of polarity of set voltage on the properties of conductive filaments in NiO based nonvolatile memory device

In this paper, we realize the coexistence of bipolar and unipolar resistive switching (RS) in one Pt-Ir/NiO/TiB1+δ cell. The types of RS are controlled by polarity of set voltage and are free from the current compliance. Based on this coexistence, the set voltage and characters of filaments formed in RS are studied. The results show that the types of filaments also show polarity dependence on the set voltage. The positive set voltage can induce metallic filaments while the negative set voltage can result in semiconductor filaments. It reveals that the distribution of magnitude of set voltage shows abnormal polarity dependence in our devices. The combination the theory of interaction between oxygen vacancy defects and one-carrier impact ionization theory of breakdown account for these results. The influence of filament properties on RS types is also discussed.