Origin of resistivity change in NiO thin films studied by hard x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy

We investigated origins of the resistivity change during the forming of NiO based resistive random access memories in a nondestructive way using hard x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Energy shifts and bandgap states observed after switching suggest that oxygen vacancies are created in the low resistive state. As a result conduction may occur via defects such as electrons traps and metallic nickel impurities. Migration of oxygen atoms seems to be the driving mechanism. This provides concrete evidence of the major role played by oxygen defects in decreasing resistivity. This is a key point since oxygen vacancies are particularly unstable and thus difficult to identify by physico-chemical analyses.