Correlation between resistive switching characteristics and density of traps observed in Zr₃N₂ resistive switching memory devices with TiN barrier electrode

In this study, we present a correlation between the resistive switching (RS) characteristics and the traps of Zr₃N₂, which is based resistive random-access memory (RRAM) with a TiN barrier electrode, in order to identify the RS mechanism of the trap-based RRAM devices. First, gradual asymmetrical RS properties were discovered in the RS test, which included a current ratio of >2.51 × 10² and a large read margin of 480. As a result of analyzing the trap, the RS characteristics were deeply related to the nitride trap density (N_nt) in the Zr₃N₂ films as opposed to the interface trap density (N_it) at Zr₃N₂/p-Si layer. In addition, in the trap evaluation for four different resistance states, we observed that the N_nt was consistently increased with a decreasing resistance. These results indicate that the resistance state of the proposed TiN/Zr₃N₂/p-Si memory cell is determined by the N_nt, which means that controlling the N_nt is important in order to achieve a stable resistance state.