Influence of Ge nanolayers on the resistive switching effect in amorphous hydrogenated silicon based structures

Resistive switchings in p-i-n structures based on amorphous hydrogenated silicon both with and without inclusions of Ge nanolayers in the i-layer were studied. The structure of the samples was studied using Raman spectroscopy. It was shown that all layers were amorphous and contained up to 35 atomic % of hydrogen. In the structures with five 6 nm thick Ge nanolayers embedded in the i-layer, separated by layers of undoped 15 nm thick amorphous silicon, the resistive switching effects are stable and reproducible in the bipolar mode from a high-resistance state to a low-resistance state and backwards. In this case, the resistive switchings occur through several intermediate stages. This type of switching is typical for multi-bit or analog memristors. It was shown that the intermediate states have high stability. The memory window observed in the experiments grows linearly with increasing limiting current with good current stability in the OFF state. Thus, the studied p-i-n structures can be used in memristors.