Scanning transmission X-ray microscopy probe for in situ mechanism study of graphene-oxide-based resistive random access memory

Here, an in situ probe for scanning transmission X-ray microscopy (STXM) has been developed and applied to the study of the bipolar resistive switching (BRS) mechanism in an Al/graphene oxide (GO)/Al resistive random access memory (RRAM) device. To perform in situ STXM studies at the C K- and O K-edges, both the RRAM junctions and the I₀ junction were fabricated on a single Si₃N₄ membrane to obtain local XANES spectra at these absorption edges with more delicate I₀ normalization. Using this probe combined with the synchrotron-based STXM technique, it was possible to observe unique chemical changes involved in the BRS process of the Al/GO/Al RRAM device. Reversible oxidation and reduction of GO induced by the externally applied bias voltages were observed at the O K-edge XANES feature located at 538.2 eV, which strongly supported the oxygen ion drift model that was recently proposed from ex situ transmission electron microscope studies.