Oxynitride Amorphous Carbon Layer for Electrically and Thermally Robust Bipolar Resistive Switching

Advanced resistive random-access memory (ReRAM) devices based on resistive switching (RS) have been intensely studied for future high-density nonvolatile memory devices owing to their high scalability, simplified integration, fast operation, and ultralow power consumption. Among the recently considered active media, diverse carbon-based media have emerged because of numerous benefits of simple chemical composition, desirable speed, and cost-effective scalability. However, these media are still susceptible to undesirable reliability issues, including poor endurance and retention and uncontrollable operation voltage distribution. In this study, an oxynitride amorphous carbon active medium governed by appropriate nitrogen content during growth is introduced to facilitate high electrical stability, such as a distinct pulse endurance of more than 10⁷ cycles, a high retention time of 10⁵ s at 85 °C, and increased uniformity in the SET/RESET distribution with thermally robust RS stability even at a high annealing temperature of 400 °C. The findings are possibly the result of adapting an sp²–sp³ conversion nature assisted by the presence of pyridinic N or pyrrolic N as a substitution reaction.