Role of Electrical Forming Process in Resistive Switching Effect of Nickel Oxide Thin Films

由氧化镍（NiO）组成的电阻式随机存取存储器（ReRAM）是新一代非易失性存储器中最有前途的简单器件之一。然而，氧化物的基本性质和电阻开关机制尚未完全了解。在研究中，我们重点研究了NiO薄膜的电形成过程和氧成分，并研究了薄膜的电阻开关性能和缺陷。在Pt/NiO_<1.07>/Pt叠层结构中，初始态和高阻态电阻的活化能和导纳谱分析表明，在价带边缘以上170meV的缺陷能级上热激发空穴的能带传导可能占主导地位。

Resistive Random Access Memory (ReRAM) consisting of nickel oxide (NiO) is one of the promising simple devices for a new generation nonvolatile memory. However, fundamental properties of the oxides and resistive switching mechanisms have not been fully understood yet. In the study, we focused on the electrical forming process and the oxygen composition of the NiO thin films and investigated the resistive switching property and defects in the films. By admittance spectroscopy and the activation energy of the resistances in both initial state and high-resistance state, band conduction with holes thermally excited from the defect level located at 170meV above the valence band edge may be dominant in the Pt/NiO_<1.07>/Pt stacking structure.