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Analysis of resistance switching and conductive filaments inside Cu-Ge-S using in situ transmission electron microscopy

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Abstract

In situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was carried out to investigate the dynamics of resistance switching in a solid electrolyte, Cu-Ge-S. By applying voltage to Pt-Ir/Cu-Ge-S/Pt-Ir, where Pt-Ir constituted the electrodes, a deposit containing conductive filaments composed mainly of Cu was formed around the cathode. As voltage continued to be applied, the deposit grew and finally narrow conductive filaments made contact with the anode. This corresponded to resistance switching from high- to low-resistance states (HRS and LRS). By alternating the voltage, the deposit contracted toward the cathode and detached from the anode. The resistance immediately changed from LRS to HRS. By applying voltage, the deposit containing Cu-based filaments grew and shrank, and resistance switching occurred at the electrolyte-anode interface. This conductive filament-formation model, which was recently reported, was experimentally confirmed with TEM through dynamic observations of the deposit-containing filaments.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We wish to thank Mr. S. Yasuda (Sony Corporation) for his collaboration in fabricating the devices, and Drs. M. Moniwa, T. Yamaguchi, and M. Yoshimaru (Semiconductor Technology Academic Research Center) for the productive discussions we had with them. We are grateful to Dr. K. Hamada for developing our piezo TEM holder. The TEM-EDX analyses were performed at the Center for Advanced Research of Energy and Materials (CAREM) of Hokkaido University with the kind support of Prof. N. Sakaguchi, to whom also we are grateful. Our research was partially supported by a grant from the Global COE Program, “Center for Next-Generation Information Technology Based on Knowledge Discovery and Knowledge Federation,” made available by The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) of Japan, and by Grants-in Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI) from MEXT and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) (Grant Nos. 21560681 and 22240022)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, 060-0814, Japan

    Takashi Fujii

  2. Research Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Japan

    Masashi Arita

  3. Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, 060-0814, Japan

    Yasuo Takahashi

  4. Semiconductor Technology Academic Research Center, Yokohama, 222-0033, Japan

    Ichiro Fujiwara

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  1. Takashi Fujii
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Correspondence to Yasuo Takahashi.

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Fujii, T., Arita, M., Takahashi, Y. et al. Analysis of resistance switching and conductive filaments inside Cu-Ge-S using in situ transmission electron microscopy. Journal of Materials Research 27, 886–896 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2011.437

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2011.437

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