Characterization of Resistance-Switching Properties of SiOx Films Using Pt Nanodots Electrodes

Pt-NDs as nano-electrodes were formed on SiOx/TiN stacked structures by exposing an ultrathin Pt layer to remote H2-plasma without external heating and evaluate the scalability of SiOx by using a conductive AFM probe technique. AFM images confirm the formation of Pt-NDs with an areal dot density of ~1.5×10^10 cm-2 as a result of surface migration and agglomeration of Pt atoms promoted by the surface recombination of H radicals. By contacting a single Pt-ND with a Rh coated Si cantilever and applying positive bias with respect to the TiN bottom electrode, the uni-polar type resistance switching behavior was observed in despite of contact area between the ND and the SiOx as small as ~900 nm^2. In addition, after electro-forming process, distinct bi-polar type resistive switching of counter-clockwise rotation was also confirmed repeatedly by sweeping positive bias applied to Pt-ND, which suggests that plasma damages is negligibly small.