Resistive switching effects of nanocrystalline silicon films in conductive-bridging random-access memory device

In this work, intrinsic nanocrystalline silicon (NC-Si) thin film is deposited onto the ITO/glass substrate by PECVD and used as the conduction material for the conductive-bridging random-access memory device. The resistive 'switching effects of the nanocrystalline silicon thin films are investigated in the memory device: Experimental results have shown the stable bipolar resistive switching of the NC-Si films with a retention time over 10(4)s. In addition, the current conduction mechanism of the nanocrystalline silicon films is examined with XPS depth-profiling and TEM analyses. It clearly indicates that the conduction mechanism of the resistive switching is the formation of metallic bridges due to the metal cation migration in the nanocrystalline silicon film.