Charge Transport in Nonstoichiometric SiOx Obtained by Treatment of Thermal SiO2 in Hydrogen Plasma of Electronic-Cyclotron Resonance.

Currently, a new generation of high-speed, information-intensive resistive memory based on nonstoichiometric dielectrics is being developed. The electron structure of nonstoichiometric silicon oxide SiOx is set by the value of parameter x. It is found that the treatment of thermal SiO2 in hydrogen plasma electron cyclotron resonance leads to the enrichment of silicon oxide with excess silicon, which in turn leads to the appearance of electron and hole traps in SiOx. SiOx conductivity is bipolar: electrons are injected from negatively biased silicon and holes are injected from positively biased silicon. Cathodoluminescence (CL) experiments confirm the assumption that the traps in SiOx are due to the excess silicon. p++-Si(100)/SiOx/Ni memristor metal-dielectric-semiconductor (MDS) structures are fabricated based on the developed procedure for the preparation of nonstoichiometric oxide in hydrogen plasma of electron cyclotron resonance. Such structures have the properties of resistive switching of SiOx that do not require a forming operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]