The electrical performance of TiO2 nanorod array (NRA)-based resistive switching memory devices is examined in this paper. The formation of a seed layer on the fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) glass substrate after treatment in TiCl4 solution, before the growth of TiO2 NRAs on the FTO substrate via a hydrothermal process, is shown to significantly improve the resistive switching performance of the resulting TiO2 NRA-based device. As fabricated, the Al/TiO2 NRA/TiOx layer/FTO device displayed electroforming-free bipolar resistive switching behavior while maintaining a stable ON/OFF ratio for more than 500 direct sweeping cycles over a retention period of 3 × 104 s. Meanwhile, the programming current as low as ∼10-8 A and 10-10 A for low resistance state and high resistance state respectively makes the fabricated devices suitable for low-power memristor applications. The TiOx precursor seed layer not only promotes the uniform and preferred growth of TiO2 nanorods on the FTO substrate but also functions as an additional source layer of trap centers due to its oxygen-deficient composition. Our data suggest that the primary conduction mechanism in these devices arises from trap-mediated space-charge-limited current (SCLC). Multilevel memory performance in this new device is achieved by varying the SET voltage. The origin of this effect is also discussed.
Keywords: TiO2 nanorod array; low power; multilevel memory; resistive switching; seed layer; space-charge-limited current.