NEXAFS study of electronic and atomic structure of active layer in Al/indium tin oxide/TiO2 stack during resistive switching

Elena Filatova; Aleksei Konashuk; Yuri Petrov; Evgeny Ubyivovk; Andrey Sokolov; Andrei Selivanov; Victor Drozd

doi:10.1080/14686996.2016.1182851

NEXAFS study of electronic and atomic structure of active layer in Al/indium tin oxide/TiO₂ stack during resistive switching

Sci Technol Adv Mater. 2016 Jun 24;17(1):274-284. doi: 10.1080/14686996.2016.1182851. eCollection 2016.

Authors

Elena Filatova¹, Aleksei Konashuk¹, Yuri Petrov¹, Evgeny Ubyivovk¹, Andrey Sokolov², Andrei Selivanov¹, Victor Drozd¹

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Physics, St Petersburg State University , Ul'yanovskaya Str. 1, Peterhof, 198504 , St Petersburg , Russia.
² Institute Nanometre Optics and Technology (FG-INT), Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie GmbH , Albert Einstein Str. 15, 12489 , Berlin , Germany.

Abstract

We have studied the stability of the resistive switching process in the Al/(In₂O₃)_0.9(SnO₂)_0.1/TiO₂ assembly grown by atomic layer deposition. Besides electrical characterization the effect of electric field on the atomic electronic structure of the TiO₂ layer was studied using near edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) spectroscopy. The region of the current instability in the I-V characteristics was revealed. Presumably this current instability is supported by the amorphous structure of the TiO₂ film but is initiated by the surface morphology of the Al substrate. A formation of the O₂ molecules was established which occurs specifically in the region of the current instability that is a result of electrical Joule heating manifestation.

Keywords: NEXAFS; ReRAM; current instability; local heating; molecular oxygen.