Electric-field induced structural transition in vertical MoTe2- and Mo1-xWxTe2-based resistive memories

Transition metal dichalcogenides have attracted attention as potential building blocks for various electronic applications due to their atomically thin nature and polymorphism. Here, we report an electric-field-induced structural transition from a 2H semiconducting to a distorted transient structure (2H(d)) and orthorhombic T-d conducting phase in vertical 2H-MoTe2- and Mo1-xWxTe2-based resistive random access memory (RRAM) devices. RRAM programming voltages are tunable by the transition metal dichalcogenide thickness and show a distinctive trend of requiring lower electric fields for Mo1-xWxTe2 alloys versus MoTe2 compounds. Devices showed reproducible resistive switching within 10 ns between a high resistive state and a low resistive state. Moreover, using an Al2O3/MoTe2 stack, On/off current ratios of 10(6) with programming currents lower than 1 mu A were achieved in a selectorless RRAM architecture. The sum of these findings demonstrates that controlled electrical state switching in two-dimensional materials is achievable and highlights the potential of transition metal dichalcogenides for memory applications.