Study of the resistive switching behavior in Si/N:SiOx (x<2) multilayer-based MOS devices

This work studies the resistive switching properties in Si/N:SiO
x
(x<2) multilayer (ML) structures. The thickness of Si layers was kept constant (4 nm) while the thickness of the N:SiO
x
layer was changed from 2 to 6 nm to obtain three different MLs labeled as L42, L44 and L46, respectively. In this MLs, Si nanocrystals (Si-ncs) isolated by N:SiO
x
are formed after a thermal annealing process. All MLs exhibit the electroforming process (SET, ON) at forward bias. However, only the L42 ML was able to obtain the RESET (OFF) process allowing the resistive switching between high and low resistance states. ON/OFF ratios of about 10E
⁹
were obtained with SET and RESET voltages below 5V. Moreover, the LRS in the L42 ML was also activated with light.