New prospects for universal memory from MIPT Russia using Picosun ALD

MIPT Reports: Researchers from MIPT’s Center of Shared Research Facilities have found a way to control oxygen concentration in tantalum oxide films produced by atomic layer deposition. These thin films could be the basis for creating new forms of nonvolatile memory.

The MIPT non-volatile ReRAM memory cell is based on ALD deposited tantalum oxide using tantalum ethoxide and water.

“The hardest part in depositing oxygen-deficient films was finding the right reactants that would make it possible to both eliminate the ligands contained in the metallic precursor and control oxygen content in the resulting coating,” says Andrey Markeev, who holds a PhD in physics and mathematics and is a leading researcher at MIPT. “We achieved this by using a tantalum precursor, which by itself contains oxygen, and a reactant in the form of plasma-activated hydrogen.”

Experimental cluster, including a Picosun ALD reactor, for growing and studying thin films in a vacuum at the Center of Shared Research Facilities, MIPT