Conducting filaments in Pt/ZrCuOy/Pt resistive switching memory cells

Forming-free unipolar resistive switching with good retention time, low voltage (<1.9 V) and thin thickness (∼11 nm) is obtained in oxygen deficient Pt/ZrCuOy/Pt devices. Annealing at 150 °C is beneficial to improve the endurance from 286 to >6 × 103 and the resistance ratio from ∼13 to ∼25. Nanoscale current path images observed using a conductive atomic force microscope reveal a current density of ∼3.0 × 102 nA/μm2 in the ON state, almost four orders of magnitude higher than ∼3.3 × 10−2 nA/μm2 in the OFF state. The resistive switching is thought to be dominated by the oxygen vacancies, which serves as the filamentary conduction in the film.