Forming process of unipolar resistance switching in Ta2O5-x thin films

Abstract

We investigated the film-thickness and ambient oxygen-pressure dependence of the electric field, E-F, required to initiate unipolar resistance switching (URS) in Ta2O5-x thin films. We measured the dependence of E-F by applying a triangular-waveform voltage signal to the film over a wide sweep-rate range (v = 20 mV s(-1) to 5 MV s(-1)). Our results showed that the URS-E-F was not influenced by the Ta2O5-x film thickness nor ambient oxygen-pressure. This suggested that the URS-forming process in Ta2O5-x thin films should be governed by thermally assisted dielectric breakdown in our measurement range. (c) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.