Switching Failure Mechanism in Zinc Peroxide-Based Programmable Metallization Cell

The impact of peroxide surface treatment on the resistive switching characteristics of zinc peroxide (ZnO(2))-based programmable metallization cell (PMC) devices is investigated. The peroxide treatment results in a ZnO hexagonal to ZnO(2) cubic phase transformation; however, an excessive treatment results in crystalline decomposition. The chemically synthesized ZnO(2) promotes the occurrence of switching behavior in Cu/ZnO(2)/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 ZnO(2) is responsible for this degradation behavior and fine tuning on ZnO(2) properties, which is necessary to achieve proper switching characteristics in ZnO(2)-based PMC devices.