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Chin. Phys. B, 2013, Vol. 22(6): 067202    DOI: 10.1088/1674-1056/22/6/067202
Special Issue: TOPICAL REVIEW — Magnetism, magnetic materials, and interdisciplinary research
TOPICAL REVIEW—Magnetism, magnetic materials, and interdisciplinary research Prev   Next  

Resistance switching in oxides with inhomogeneous conductivity

Shang Da-Shang (尚大山)a b, Sun Ji-Rong (孙继荣)a, Shen Bao-Gen (沈保根)a, Wuttig Matthiasb
a Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics and Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China;
b I. Physikalisches Institut (IA), RWTH Aachen University, 52056 Aachen, Germany
Abstract  Electric-field-induced resistance switching (RS) phenomena have been studied for over 60 years in metal/dielectrics/metal structures. In these experiments a wide range of dielectrics have been studied including binary transition metal oxides, perovskite oxides, chalcogenides, carbon- and silicon-based materials, as well as organic materials. RS phenomena can be used to store information and offer an attractive performance, which encompasses fast switching speeds, high scalability, and the desirable compatibility with Si-based complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor fabrication. This is promising for nonvolatile memory technology, i.e. resistance random access memory (RRAM). However, a comprehensive understanding of the underlying mechanism is still lacking. This impedes a faster product development as well as an accurate assessment of the device performance potential. Generally speaking, RS occurs not in the entire dielectric but only in a small, confined region, which results from the local variation of conductivity in dielectrics. In this review, we focus on the RS in oxides with such an inhomogeneous conductivity. According to the origin of the conductivity inhomogeneity, the RS phenomena and their working mechanism are reviewed by dividing them into two aspects: interface RS, based on the change of contact resistance at metal/oxide interface due to the change of Schottky barrier and interface chemical layer, and bulk RS, realized by the formation, connection, and disconnection of conductive channels in the oxides. Finally the current challenges of RS investigation and the potential improvement of the RS performance for the nonvolatile memories are discussed.
Keywords:  resistance switching      inhomogeneous conductivity      transition metal oxide  
Received:  21 March 2013      Revised:  04 April 2013      Accepted manuscript online: 
PACS:  72.60.+g (Mixed conductivity and conductivity transitions)  
  72.20.-i (Conductivity phenomena in semiconductors and insulators)  
  73.40.Cg (Contact resistance, contact potential)  
  73.40.Rw (Metal-insulator-metal structures)  
Fund: Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11004235, 11274363, 51072224, and 11134007), the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2009CB930803), and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (for S.D.S).
Corresponding Authors:  Shang Da-Shang     E-mail:  shangdashan@iphy.ac.cn

Cite this article: 

Shang Da-Shang (尚大山), Sun Ji-Rong (孙继荣), Shen Bao-Gen (沈保根), Wuttig Matthias Resistance switching in oxides with inhomogeneous conductivity 2013 Chin. Phys. B 22 067202

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