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Resistive switching properties of hafnium oxide thin-films sputtered at different oxygen partial pressures

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Abstract

We report a study on the effects of O2/Ar ratio on the resistive switching properties of HfOx thin-films deposited by using RF magnetron sputtering. Ar is kept at a constant flow rate of 30 SCCM and O2 is varied from 0 to 30 SCCM during the deposition of these thin films. The UV–Vis spectra reveled that the transmission percentage of these films increase proportionally with increase of O2/Ar ratio up to a critical value. Further, the peak positions at 2.7 and 2.9 eV in PL spectra were attributed to singly and doubly charged oxygen vacancies respectively. These defects and vacancies alter the switching behavior of the devices. Moreover, the XPS data showed that the intensity of O–O bond peak decreases as O2/Ar ratio increases. Therefore, the switching performance shows a significant influence of the amount of inletting the oxygen gas with Ar during the deposition, thereby an improvement in the resistance ratio (Roff/Ron) of these HfOx based devices is noticed.

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Acknowledgements

N. Arun thanks UGC-NET for providing the fellowship (JRF and SRF) and National Academy of Sciences India (NASI) for RA. APP thanks NASI, India, Prayagraj (Allahabad) for the award of NASI Sr Scientist Platinum Jubilee Fellowship. We thank Centre for Nanotechnology (CFN), University of Hyderabad for providing necessary characterization facilities.

Funding

The project fund is granted from the National Academy of Sciences India (NASI), Prayagraj (Allahabad), India.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Physics, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, 500 046, India

    N. Arun, S. V. S. Nageswara Rao & A. P. Pathak

  2. Centre for Nanotechnology, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, 500 046, India

    N. Arun & S. V. S. Nageswara Rao

  3. Nanoscale Research Facility (NRF), IIT Delhi, New Delhi, 110016, India

    N. Arun

  4. Department of Physics, Pondicherry University, Pondicherry, 605 014, India

    M. M. Neethish & V. V. Ravi Kanth Kumar

  5. Centre for Advanced Studies in Electronics Science and Technology (CASEST), School of Physics, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, 500 046, India

    S. V. S. Nageswara Rao

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Contributions

NA: Methodology, Formal analysis, Data curation, Investigation, Validation, Writing—original draft, Writing—review & editing; APP: Conceptualization, Resources, Methodology, Writing—review & editing, Supervision, Funding acquisition, Project administration; VVRKK: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing—review & editing; MMN: Data analysis and interpretation; SVSNR: Conceptualization, Resources, Methodology, Writing—review & editing, Supervision, Funding acquisition, Project administration.

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Correspondence to A. P. Pathak.

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Arun, N., Neethish, M.M., Ravi Kanth Kumar, V.V. et al. Resistive switching properties of hafnium oxide thin-films sputtered at different oxygen partial pressures. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 35, 235 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-024-12023-7

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