Investigation of Switching Phenomenon in Metal-Tantalum Oxide Interface

To investigate the nature of the switching phenomenon at the metal-tantalum oxide interface, we fabricated a memory device in which a tantalum oxide amorphous layer acted as a switching medium. Different metals were deposited on top of the tantalum oxide layer to ensure that they will react with some of the oxygen contents already present in the amorphous layer of the tantalum oxide. This will cause the formation of metal oxide (MOx) at the interface. Two devices with Ti and Cu as the top electrodes were fabricated for this purpose. Both devices showed bipolar switching characteristics. The SET and RESET voltages for the Ti top electrode device were ~+1.7 V and ~-2 V, respectively, whereas the SET and RESET voltages for the Cu top electrode device were ~+0.9 V and ~-0.9 V, respectively. In the high-resistance state (HRS) conduction, the mechanisms involved in the devices with Ti and Cu top electrodes were space-charge limited conduction (SCLC) and ohmic, respectively. On the other hand, in the low-resistance state (LRS), the Ti top electrode device undergoes SCLC at a high voltage and ohmic conduction at a low voltage, and the Cu top electrode again undergoes ohmic conduction. From the consecutive sweep cycles, it was observed that the SET voltage gradually decreased with the sweeps for the Cu top electrode device, whereas for the Ti top electrode device, the set voltage did not vary with the sweeps.