Au doping effects in HfO₂-based resistive switching memory

Highlights: • The formation energies of oxygen vacancy in Au doped HfO₂ are calculated. • Au doping suppresses the randomicity of oxygen vacancy filaments' formation. • The Cu/HfO₂: Au/Pt shows superior resistive switching properties. - Abstract: In this paper, first principles calculation is performed to investigate the impact of Au doping on the properties of oxygen vacancy in HfO₂, including defect energy level and formation energy (E_f). The E_f is significantly reduced in Au-doped HfO₂ film. In the experiments, the Cu/HfO₂: Au/Pt memory devices are fabricated and exhibit high resistance ratio, reliable date retention and good endurance. This performance improvement is clarified to the suppressed randomicity of oxygen vacancy filaments' formation by trivalent Au-doping effect. The achieved results also demonstrate the validity of implantation doping approach for the fabrication of RRAM devices