The Effect of Nitrogen Annealing on the Resistive Switching Characteristics of the W/TiO2/FTO Memory Device
Zhiqiang Yu, Xu Han, Jiamin Xu, Cheng Chen, Xinru Qu, Baosheng Liu, Zijun Sun, Tangyou Sun
Abstract
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 (RHRS/RLRS) 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 RHRS/RLRS 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.