Effect of dielectric thickness on resistive switching polarity in TiN/Ti/HfO2/Pt stacks

Abstract

In recent years, several materials and metal-insulator-metal devices are being intensively studied as prospective non-volatile memories due to their resistive switching effect. In this work, thickness-dependent resistive switching polarity was observed in TiN/Ti/HfO2/Pt structures as the sign of the voltages at which SET and RESET occur depended on the film thickness. A thorough revision of the previous literature on bipolar resistive switching polarity changes is made in order to condense previous knowledge of the subject in a brief and comprehensible way and explain the experimental measurements. The different resistive switching polarities occur in a similar voltage range, which is a new finding when compared to precedent research on the subject. A hypothesis is proposed to explain the change in resistive switching polarity, based on the assumption that polarity change is due to filament disruption occurring at different interfaces.