Formation energy study of oxygen vacancies in undoped, aluminum-doped and nitrogen-doped TaOx-based RRAM by first principle simulation

Formation and transfer of oxygen vacancies are essential to transitional metal oxide RRAM's switching behavior. In this paper, first principle is used to simulate the formation energy of oxygen vacancies in undoped, Al-doped and N-doped TaOx based RRAM. In Al-doped TaOx, oxygen vacancies' formation energy is reduced significantly near the dopant atom. However, in N-doped TaOx, the formation energy of oxygen vacancies is slightly decreased compared with the undoped one. Our simulation results provide insight and guidance on the approach to improving RRAM's performance by doping atoms. ? 2014 The Electrochemical Society.EI