Intrinsic resistance switching in amorphous silicon oxide for high performance SiOx ReRAM devices

•Intrinsic bipolar resistance switching in silicon oxide ReRAM devices with very high cycling endurance is presented.•Columnar growth of amorphous silicon oxide films enhances resistance switching behavior.•A rougher oxide-electrode interface promotes columnar growth.•Rough interface can lead to more electrons being injected and the generation of Frenkel defects.

In this paper, we present a study of intrinsic bipolar resistance switching in metal-oxide-metal silicon oxide ReRAM devices. Devices exhibit low electroforming voltages (typically − 2.6 V), low switching voltages (± 1 V for setting and resetting), excellent endurance of > 107 switching cycles, good state retention (at room temperature and after 1 h at 260 °C), and narrow distributions of switching voltages and resistance states. We analyse the microstructure of amorphous silicon oxide films and postulate that columnar growth, which results from sputter-deposition of the oxide on rough surfaces, enhances resistance switching behavior.

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