Self-rectifying resistive switching behavior observed in Al₂O₃-based resistive switching memory devices with p-AlGaN semiconductor bottom electrode

In this work, self-rectifying unipolar resistive switching (RS) behavior is demonstrated in Al₂O₃-based resistive random access memory (RRAM) devices by employing wide bandgap compound semiconductors, such as p-GaN and p-AlGaN, as a bottom electrode (BE). Compared to an RS characteristic of the Al₂O₃ RRAM with p-GaN BE, the memory cell with p-AlGaN BE shows a lager current ratio while a current-limited region is also more clearly obtained in a low voltage region, which can result in one diode type RRAM with self-selecting properties. Consequently, these results infer that the proposed Al₂O₃-based RRAM cells with a wide bandgap BE warrant the realization of selector-free RRAM cell without any additional peripheral elements to suppress a disturbance in reading operation.