Improved resistive-switching characteristics observed in Pt embedded nickel-nitride films prepared by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering

In this paper, the authors report the forming-free bipolar-switching operation at low set/reset voltages (VSET/VRESET) using a Pt embedded-NiN based resistive random access memory (ReRAM) cell. Compared to conventional NiN based ReRAM cells, the variations in VSET and VRESET were reduced from 1 to 0.4 V and from 0.4 to 0.2 V, respectively, using the Pt embedded ReRAM cells. These results show that the embedded Pt particles might assist in the uniform formation of the conducting filaments in the NiN films, without an initial forming process. In addition, in the endurance and retention tests, Pt embedded ReRAM cells showed more stable repetitive dc cycling characteristics with a larger resistance ratio of approximately 1 × 101 and a longer data retention of over 105 s.