ZnO based RRAM performance enhancement by 100 MeV Ag9+ irradiation

This paper demonstrates the fabrication of a thin film of Zinc Oxide (ZnO) by RF sputtering on Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) substrate for Resistive Random-Access Memory (RRAM) application. The fabricated ZnO/ITO sample was bombarded with Swift Heavy Ion (SHI) of Ag9+ ions at 100 MeV with the fluence of 1 × 1013 ions/cm2 to study the effect of ion irradiation on the resistive switching of ZnO based RRAM. The resistance ratio of Au/ZnO/ITO-based devices was measured after ion irradiation. Enhancement of more than 100% in resistance ratio was observed in I-V measurements, while in pristine sample approximately linear switching was observed. The fabricated samples were characterized using Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) to study the structural and morphological properties. The chemical composition of the ZnO/ITO substrate was studied using Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry (RBS) spectrum analysis. The current study demonstrates that ion irradiation improves the performance of ZnO-based RRAM devices significantly. The ZnO based RRAM with enhanced resistive switching can find applications in memory devices for low power scalable devices.