In this work, metal/oxide/metal capacitors were fabricated and investigated using transparent boron doped zinc oxide (ZnO:B) films for resistance switching memory applications. The optical band gap of ZnO:B films was determined to be about 3.26 eV and the average value of transmittance of ZnO:B films was about 91% in the visible light region. Experimental results indicated that the resistance switching in the W/ZnO:B/W structure is nonpolar. The resistance ratio of high resistance state (HRS) to low resistance state (LRS) is about of the order of 10⁵ at room temperature. According to the temperature dependence of current-voltage characteristics, the conduction mechanism in ZnO:B films is dominated by hopping conduction and Ohmic conduction in HRS and LRS, respectively. Therefore, trap spacing (1.2 nm) and trap energy levels in ZnO:B films could be obtained.
Keywords: boron doped zinc oxide; conduction mechanism; resistance switching; trap energy level; trap spacing.