The Effect of Nitrogen Annealing on the Resistive Switching Characteristics of the W/TiO₂/FTO Memory Device

In this paper, the effect of nitrogen annealing on the resistive switching characteristics of the rutile TiO₂ nanowire-based W/TiO₂/FTO memory device is analyzed. The W/TiO₂/FTO memory device exhibits a nonvolatile bipolar resistive switching behavior with a high resistance ratio (R_HRS/R_LRS) of about two orders of magnitude. The conduction behaviors of the W/TiO₂/FTO memory device are attributed to the Ohmic conduction mechanism and the Schottky emission in the low resistance state and the high resistance state, respectively. Furthermore, the R_HRS/R_LRS of the W/TiO₂/FTO memory device is obviously increased from about two orders of magnitude to three orders of magnitude after the rapid nitrogen annealing treatment. In addition, the change in the W/TiO₂ Schottky barrier depletion layer thickness and barrier height modified by the oxygen vacancies at the W/TiO₂ interface is suggested to be responsible for the resistive switching characteristics of the W/TiO₂/FTO memory device. This work demonstrates the potential applications of the rutile TiO₂ nanowire-based W/TiO₂/FTO memory device for high-density data storage in nonvolatile memory devices.