Resistance Switching Induced by Hydrogen and Oxygen in Diamond-Like Carbon Memristor

In this letter, one single-layer diamond-like carbon (DLC) resistive random access memory (RRAM) and two opposite stacking double-layer DLC/HfO2 RRAMs were prepared to investigate the resistance switching mechanism of DLC-based memristors. The RRAM devices were fabricated by sandwiching the active-layers between Pt top and TiN bottom electrodes. Based on the analyses for Pt/DLC/TiN and Pt/DLC/HfO2/TiN structures, we demonstrated the resistance switching in DLC RRAM is induced by hydrogen reaction near the Pt electrode. In addition, the resistance switching in Pt/HfO2/DLC/TiN structure is attributed to oxygen reaction near the TiN electrode. Based on the results of HfO2 stacked with DLC devices, we demonstrated for the first time the resistance switching of DLC at inactive electrode side (Pt) and active electrode side (TiN) is attributed to hydrogen and oxygen-induced redox of C-C bonds, respectively.