Transient Thermometry and High-Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy Analysis of Filamentary Resistive Switches

We present data on the filament size and temperature distribution in Hf_0.82Al_0.18O_<i>x</i>-based Resistive Random Access Memory (RRAM) devices obtained by transient thermometry and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). The thermometry shows that the temperature of the nonvolatile conducting filament can reach temperatures as high as 1600 K at the onset of RESET at voltage of 0.8 V and power of 40 μW. The size of the filament was estimated at about 1 nm in diameter. Hot filament increases the temperature of the surrounding high resistivity oxide, causing it to conduct and carry a significant fraction of the total current. The current spreading results in slowing down the filament temperature increase at higher power. The results of thermometry have been corroborated by HRTEM analysis of the as-fabricated and switched RRAM devices. The functional HfAlO_<i>x</i> layer in as-fabricated devices is amorphous. In devices that were switched, we detected a small crystalline region of 10–15 nm in size. The crystallization temperature of the HfAlO_<i>x</i> was determined to be 850 K in an independent annealing experiment. The size of the crystalline region agrees with thermal modeling based on the thermometry data. Scanning transmission electron microscopy (TEM) coordinated with electron energy loss spectroscopy could not detect changes in the chemical makeup of the filament