Bipolar resistive switching properties of titanium dioxide thin films deposited by different techniques

Abstract

A comparative study of bipolar resistive switching in thin films of titanium dioxide, fabricated by different techniques, was carried out by analysis of current-voltage characteristics (I-V). For this purpose metal-insulator-metal (MIM) structures were formed with 60-nm-thick titanium dioxide layer deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD) or RF magnetron sputtering. Based on the analysis of resistance switching characteristics, it was found that the deposition technique of titanium dioxide thin films influences the reproducibility of high-resistance state (HRS) at cycling measurements, the on-resistance (low resistance state)/off-resistance (HRS) ratio, the average values of SET [switching the resistance from a HRS to a low resistance state (LRS)] and RESET [switching the resistance from LRS to HRS] voltages and the number of resistive switching cycles. The results of study of the thin film topography performed by atomic force microscopy (AFM) suggest that the difference in resistive switching parameters could be caused by structural properties of titanium dioxide layers deposited by different techniques.