The Effect of Nitrogen Annealing on the Resistive Switching Characteristics of the W/TiO(2)/FTO Memory Device

In this paper, the effect of nitrogen annealing on the resistive switching characteristics of the rutile TiO(2) nanowire-based W/TiO(2)/FTO memory device is analyzed. The W/TiO(2)/FTO memory device exhibits a nonvolatile bipolar resistive switching behavior with a high resistance ratio (R(HRS)/R(LRS)) of about two orders of magnitude. The conduction behaviors of the W/TiO(2)/FTO memory device are attributed to the Ohmic conduction mechanism and the Schottky emission in the low resistance state and the high resistance state, respectively. Furthermore, the R(HRS)/R(LRS) of the W/TiO(2)/FTO memory device is obviously increased from about two orders of magnitude to three orders of magnitude after the rapid nitrogen annealing treatment. In addition, the change in the W/TiO(2) Schottky barrier depletion layer thickness and barrier height modified by the oxygen vacancies at the W/TiO(2) interface is suggested to be responsible for the resistive switching characteristics of the W/TiO(2)/FTO memory device. This work demonstrates the potential applications of the rutile TiO(2) nanowire-based W/TiO(2)/FTO memory device for high-density data storage in nonvolatile memory devices.