Preparation and Characteristics of Nanoscale Diamond-Like Carbon Films for Resistive Memory Applications

We propose diamond-like carbon (DLC) as the resistance change material for nonvolatile memory applications. Nanoscale DLC films are prepared by filtered cathodic vacuum arc technique and integrated to W/DLC/W structure devices. The deposited DLC film has a thickness of about 20 nm and high sp³ fraction content. Reversible bistable resistive switching from a high resistance state to a low resistance state, and vice versa, is observed under appropriate unipolar stimulation pulses. High resistance switching ratio (larger than a thousand times) and low level of switching power (about 11 μW) are demonstrated. We propose that the mechanism of the repetitive resistive switching is the growth and breakage of conductive sp²-like filaments in the predominantly sp³-type insulating carbon upon applications of voltage pulses, which is consistent with the experimental results.