Investigation on resistive memory switching mechanism of NiO

Experimental investigations on the resistive memory switching in sub-micron sized NiO memory cell are presented to elucidate the resistive memory switching mechanism. The voltage or current-biased I-V measurements show that the resistive switching transitions can be regarded as the combination of a voltage-controlled negative differential resistance phenomenon and a current-controlled negative differential resistance phenomenon. Along with experimental observations of multiple resistance states, these indicate that the memory switching in NiO would come from the percolative formation and rupture of filamentary conducting paths. Pulse experiments further suggest that the memory switching would come from local domains inside filaments.