Study of inert gas pressure influence on electroforming and resistive switching of TiN-TiO2-SiO2-W memristors

In this work we have studied functioning of memristors based on TiN-TiO2-SiO2-W open edge sandwich structures on Si substrates in inert gas medium. A custom-made experimental setup that allowed controlled gas atmosphere within the pressure range of 0.0001-750 Torr was used. The electroforming was performed by a procedure of applying a quasistatic electric pulse of 10-20 V. The resistive switching was performed by pulses of 5 V, 30 ms for the “ON” switching and 5-8 V, 100 ns for the “OFF” switching. We carried out investigations for nitrogen and argon inert gases. As a result, first, we have established that the resistive switching in inert gases (both nitrogen and argon) of the memory elements electroformed in vacuum, reliably takes place in the entire inert gas pressure range including the maximum experimental value of 1 atm. Second, we showed that the electroforming takes place at the maximum inert gas pressure of 100 Torr.