Nonvolatile resistive switching characteristics of HfO2 with Cu doping

In this work, resistive switching characteristics of hafnium oxide (HfO2) with Cu doping prepared by electron beam evaporation are investigated for nonvolatile memory applications. The top metal electrode/ hafnium oxide doped with Cu/n+ Si structure shows two distinct resistance states (high-resistance and low-resistance) in DC sweep mode. By applying a proper bias, resistance switching from one state to the other state can be achieved. Though the ratio of high/low resistance is less than an order, the switching behavior is very stable and uniform with nearly 100% device yield. No data loss is found upon continuous readout for more than 104 s. The role of the intentionally introduced Cu impurities in the resistive switching behavior is investigated. HfO2 films with Cu doping are promising to be used in the nonvolatile resistive switching memory devices.