After that, the Pt top electrode of 200-nm thickness was selleck deposited on the specimen by DC magnetron

sputtering. The photolithography and lift-off technique were used to shape the cells into square pattern with area of 0.36 to 16 μm2. The electrical measurements of devices were performed using Agilent B1500 semiconductor parameter analyzer (Santa Clara, CA, USA). Besides, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and Raman spectroscopy were used to analyze the chemical composition and bonding of the amorphous carbon materials, respectively. Results and discussion Figure 1 shows the bipolar current–voltage (I-V) characteristics of the carbon memory cell in semi-logarithmic scale under DC voltage Mdivi1 sweeping mode at room temperature. After the electroforming process (inset of Figure 1), the resistance switching behavior of the as-fabricated device can be obtained repeatedly, using DC voltage switching with a compliance current of 10 μA. By sweeping the bias from zero to negative value (about -1.5 V), the resistance state is transformed from low resistance states (LRS) to high resistance states (HRS), called as ‘reset process’. Conversely, as the voltage sweeps from zero to a positive value (about 1.5 V), the resistance selleck screening library state is turned back to LRS, called as ‘set process’. During set process, a compliance current of 10 mA is applied to prevent permanent breakdown. Figure 1

Current–voltage sweeps of Pt/a-C:H/TiN memory device. To further evaluate the memory performance of amorphous carbon RRAM, the endurance and retention tests were shown in Figure 2. The resistance values of reliability and sizing effect measurement were obtained by a read voltage of 0.2 V. The device exhibits stable HRS and LRS even after more than 107 sweeping cycles (Figure 2a), which demonstrates its acceptable switching

endurance capability. The retention characteristics of HRS and LRS at Meloxicam T = 85°C are shown in Figure 2b. No significant degradation of resistance in HRS and LRS was observed. It indicates that the device has good reliability for nonvolatile memory applications. Figure 2c reveals the resistance of LRS and HRS states with various sizes of via hole, which is independent with the electrode area of the device. According to the proposed model by Sawa [44], the resistive switching behavior in carbon RRAM is attributed to filament-type RRAM. Figure 2 Endurance (a), retention properties (b), and sizing effect measurement (c) of Pt/a-C:H/TiN memory device. To investigate the interesting phenomena, we utilized the material spectrum analyses to find out the reason of working current reduction and better stability. The sputtered carbon film was analyzed by Raman spectroscopy and the spectra revealed in Figure 3a. The broaden peak from 1,100 to 1,700 cm-1 demonstrates the existence of amorphous carbon structure [45].