A unified microscopic principle is proposed to clarify resistive switching behaviors of transition metal oxide based resistive random access memories (RRAM) for the first time. In this unified microscopic principle, both unipolar and bipolar switching characteristics of RRAM are correlated with the distribution of localized oxygen vacancies in the oxide switching layer, which is governed by the generation and recombination with dissociative oxygen ions. Based on the proposed microscopic principle, an atomistic simulation method is developed to evaluate critical memory performance, and successfully conduct the device optimization. The experimental data are well in line with the developed simulation method.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.