Switching Failure Mechanism in Zinc Peroxide-Based Programmable Metallization Cell

Abstract

The impact of peroxide surface treatment on the resistive switching characteristics of zinc peroxide (ZnO₂)-based programmable metallization cell (PMC) devices is investigated. The peroxide treatment results in a ZnO hexagonal to ZnO₂ cubic phase transformation; however, an excessive treatment results in crystalline decomposition. The chemically synthesized ZnO₂ promotes the occurrence of switching behavior in Cu/ZnO₂/ZnO/ITO with much lower operation current as compared to the Cu/ZnO/ITO (control device). However, the switching stability degrades as performing the peroxide treatment for a longer time. We suggest that the microstructure of the ZnO₂ is responsible for this degradation behavior and fine tuning on ZnO₂ properties, which is necessary to achieve proper switching characteristics in ZnO₂-based PMC devices.