Evaluation of Chemical Composition and Bonding Features of Pt/SiO<sub>x</sub>/Pt MIM Diodes and Its Impact on Resistance Switching Behavior

We have investigated the impact of O2 annealing after SiOx deposition on the switching behavior to gain a better understanding of the resistance switching mechanism, especially the role of oxygen deficiency in the SiOx network. Although resistive random access memories (ReRAMs) with SiOx after 300°C annealing sandwiched with Pt electrodes showed uni-polar type resistance switching characteristics, the switching behaviors were barely detectable for the samples after annealing at temperatures over 500°C. Taking into account of the average oxygen content in the SiOx films evaluated by XPS measurements, oxygen vacancies in SiOx play an important role in resistance switching. Also, the results of conductive AFM measurements suggest that the formation and disruption of a conducting filament path are mainly responsible for the resistance switching behavior of SiOx.