An overview of materials issues in resistive random access memory

Resistive random access memory (RRAM) is a very promising next generation non-volatile RAM, with quite significant advantages over the widely used silicon-based Flash memories. For RRAM, material with switchable resistance, working as the storage medium, is the most important part for the performance of the memory. In this review, as a start, some general hints for the materials selection are proposed. Then most recent studies on this emerging memory from the perspective of materials science are summarized: various materials with resistance switch (RS) behavior and the underlying mechanisms are introduced; as a complementary to the previous review articles, here the increasingly important role of computational materials science in the research of RRAM is presented and highlighted. By incorporating the framework of high-throughput calculation and multi-scale simulations, design process of new RRAM could be accelerated and more cost-effective.