Effects of the compliance current on the resistive switching behavior of TiO2 thin films

Nanocrystalline TiO2 thin films were fabricated on Pt(111)/Ti/SiO2/Si substrates by the thermal oxidation of evaporated Ti films. Effects of the compliance current on the resistive switching behavior of the Pt/TiO2/Pt sandwich structures were studied in detail. The reset current increased when the compliance current increased from 10 mA to 20 mA. When the compliance current exceeded 20 mA, the switching behavior disappeared, which could be attributed to the change of the conducting behavior in the low-resistance state. A resistance change ratio of as high as 10(2) was obtained between the high-resistance state and the low-resistance state. The study of the effect of compliance current contributes to obtaining stable and reliable resistive switching behavior for nonvolatile memory applications.