Resistive switching characteristics of hafnium oxide with CU doping for nonvolatile memory application

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 lees 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.