Charge-dependent oxygen vacancy diffusion in Al2O3-based resistive-random-access-memories

We theoretically study an oxygen vacancy (VO) diffusion in Al2O3-based resistive-random-access-memories (ReRAMs). We find that the activation energy of VO diffusion in Al2O3 strongly depends on the charge state of VO. In ReRAM, the charge state of VO can be easily changed by applying voltage and the lowest activation energy is observed at q = 2+. The operation voltage on Al2O3-based ReRAM is close to the activation energy at q = 2+, indicating that VO diffuses with doubly positive state. Moreover, the activation energy at q = 0 is close to that observed in bulk Al2O3, which explains the discrepancy between previous experimental and theoretical studies.