Electron-Beam Deposition for the Synthesis of Memristive Structures Based on Hafnium Oxide

Abstract

Нafnium oxide is currently considered one of the most promising metal-oxide materials for creating memristive structures. Memristive structures find their application in many areas of science and technology; for example, with their help, the biosimilar emulation of synapses in neuromorphic computing systems is possible. One of the important obstacles  to the industrial use of memristors is the variability of resistive switching. Nonstoichiometry in memristor structure can be an important tool for controlling resistive switching. Therefore, in this work, memristors based on hafnium oxide in a metal–insulator–metal sandwich structure are synthesized by electron-beam deposition, which makes it possible to create nonstoichiometric films. The effect of resistive switching is studied depending on the material of the upper electrode and the thickness of the hafnium-oxide layer. The synthesis parameters are determined to achieve a balance between the main memristive characteristics.