Generally, based on the well-accepted conductive filament hypothesis to explain the memory functional performance, several nanometer-sized filaments are indeed found in the so-called forming process. However, the conductive filament model could not clarify AZD4547 the origin of energy. Recently, the random circuit breaker network model [2, 3] and conical shape filament model [4, 5] are differently developed to emphasize joule heat contribution

on breaker and thermochemical-type resistance switching, respectively. The long switching time and large power consumption of RESET (transition from a low resistance state (LRS) to a high resistance state (HRS)) process need improvements [6]. Therefore, it is important to understand the joule heat generation in resistive switching RESET behavior for the fundamental understanding. A general thermal chemical reaction (TCR) model for the RESET process has been studied by calculating the filament temperature [7]. However, we found that only the TCR itself could not explain the whole RESET process,

especially for the RESET behaviors at different temperatures. In this work, we investigated the RESET process of NbAlO-based resistive switching DZNeP concentration memory device in detail at low temperatures and clarified the involved charge trapping effect. Methods A NbAlO film (10 nm) was fabricated on a Pt/SiO2/Si substrate via atomic layer deposition (ALD) at 300°C using Al(CH3)3 and Nb(OC2H5)5 as the precursor and H2O as the oxygen source. After deposition, the sample was post-annealed in O2 ambient at 400°C for 10 min. The TiN top electrodes with the diameter of Galeterone 100 μm were fabricated by reactive magnetron sputtering. Chemical bonding state and the microstructure of the NbAlO layer was measured through X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and

transmission electron microscopy (TEM), respectively. The compositions of NbAlO were 1:2:5.5, as confirmed through Rutherford backscattering methods. The samples were placed on a cryogenic Lakeshore probe station (Lake Shore Cryotronics, Inc., Westerville, USA) and cooled with nitrogen liquid. The electrical characteristics were measured at increasing temperatures from 80 to 200 K in an interval of 10 K using a Keithley 4200-SCS semiconductor parameter analyzer (Keithley Instruments Inc., Ohio, USA) with the voltage applied on top electrode of TiN while the bottom Pt electrode was grounded. Because of the overshoot phenomenon with a small current compliance [8], 5 mA was chosen as the current compliance to protect the samples from electrical breakdown during the SET (transition from HRS to LRS) process.