Optical reset modulation in the SiO 2 /Cu conductive-bridge resistive memory stack

• Main Authors: Kawashima, Tomohito, Zhou, Yu, Yew, Kwang Sing, Ang, Diing Shenp
• Other Authors: School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: Electrolytes; Electrodes
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/86881; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/44216
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

We show that the negative photoconductivity property of the nanoscale filamentary breakdown path in the SiO2 electrolyte of the SiO2/Cu conductive bridge resistive random access memory (CBRAM) stack is affected by the number of positive-voltage sweeps applied to the Cu electrode (with respect to a non-metal counter electrode). The path's photo-response to white light, of a given intensity, is suppressed with an increasing number of applied positive-voltage sweeps. When this occurs, the path may only be disrupted by the light of a higher intensity. It is further shown that the loss of the path's photosensitivity to the light of a given intensity can be recovered using a negative-voltage sweep (which eliminates the path), followed by the reformation of the path by a positive-voltage sweep. The above behavior is, however, not seen in the SiO2/Si stack (which involves a non-metal Si electrode), suggesting that the photo-response modulation effect is related to the Cu electrode. The demonstrated reversible electrical modulation of the path's photo-response may afford greater flexibility in the electro-optical control of the CBRAM device.