Origin of Hopping Conduction in Sn-Doped Silicon Oxide RRAM With Supercritical $\hbox{CO}_{2}$ Fluid Treatment

In this letter, we investigate the origin of hopping conduction in the low-resistance state (LRS) of a resistive random access memory device with supercritical CO ₂ fluid treatment. The dangling bonds of a tin-doped silicon oxide ( Sn:SiO _x ) thin film were cross linked by the hydration-dehydration reaction through supercritical fluid technology. The current conduction mechanism of the LRS in the posttreated Sn:SiO _x thin film was transferred to hopping conduction from Ohmic conduction, owing to isolation of metal tin in the Sn:SiO _x thin film by hydration-dehydration reaction. The phenomena can be verified by our proposed reaction model, which is speculated by the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analyses.