Bipolar resistive switching behaviour of

WS2 thin films grown by chemical vapour

deposition
Cite as: AIP Conference Proceedings 2115, 030274 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5113113
Published Online: 12 July 2019

Ujjal Das, Barnali Mahato, Pranab Kumar Sarkar, and Asim Roy

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AIP Conference Proceedings 2115, 030274 (2019); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5113113 2115, 030274

© 2019 Author(s).
 Bipolar Resistive Switching Behaviour of WS2 Thin Films
Grown by Chemical Vapour Deposition
Ujjal Das1, Barnali Mahato1, Pranab Kumar Sarkar2 and Asim Roy1, a)
1
Department of Physics, National Institute of Technology Silchar, Assam-788010, India
2
Department of Applied Science and Humanities, Assam University Silchar, Assam-788011, India
a)
Corresponding author: 28.asim@gmail.com

Abstract. Transition Metal Dichalcogenides (TMDs) owing the unique 2D nanoscale structure, has been the dominant
material to be analyzed. Considering the recent progresses in electronic devices based on TMDs, WS2 is yet to be
explored in the field of resistive switching (RS) devices. In order to study the resistive switching behavior, WS2 thin film
was grown on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si substrate via Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) process. The structural and surface
morphological study revealed the crystallinity and uniformity of the as-grown WS2 thin film. Current-voltage
measurements of the Al/WS2/Pt device showed bipolar resistive switching (BRS) properties with high on/off ratio and
excellent reproducibility.

INTRODUCTION
Resistive switching (RS), fabricated by metal insulator metal (MIM) structure, has recently attracted a great
attention due to its possible application for nonvolatile memory (NVM) [1, 2]. Basically, RS devices shift resistance
from a high resistance state (HRS) to a low resistance state (LRS) upon the application of an external electric field,
which regulates the percolation pathways inside the insulting matrix. Depending on the polarity of the applied
voltage, the reversible switching mechanism typically categorized as unipolar switching, where resistance change
occurs in the same polarity and bipolar switching where opposite polarity ensures the same. Developing nanoscale
RS memory cells with high ON/OFF resistance ratio, fast switching speed, and low power consumption is one of the
key steps for achieving the application of ultrahigh density non-volatile RAM (NVRAM) [3]. Till date, mostly
silicon based CMOS technology has been utilized for the commercial memory devices. But, these storage devices
undergoes miniaturization problem. For the last few years, graphene has been exploited and implemented in various
electronic applications due its unique two dimensional structure in nanscale. But, the zero band gap of graphene
impedes its use in logic application [4]. Recently, transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are being exploited in
most of the electronic applications due to their unique two dimensional (2D) layer structure similar to graphene.
Layered TMDs are formed by early transition metals and chalcogenides with stoichiometry formula MX2 (M=Ti,
Mo, W, Zr, Hf, V, Ta; X=S, Se, Te). The transition metal atoms are sandwiched between two layers of chalcogen
atoms. One transition metal atom is coordinated by six chalcogen atoms to form either octahedral or trigonal
prismatic polyhedrons. These polyhedrons share edges to form one layer of TMDs [5]. Till date, MoS2 based
resistive switching has been reported numerously [6], unlike WS2. So, exploration of WS2 as functional layer in RS
device is desired. WS2 is a better choice than other TMDs because of its high thermal and chemical stability, higher
effective mass and higher band gap (1.3 eV-2.1 eV) [7]. In this paper, we report on the controlled fabrication of WS2
on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si substrate inside a CVD chamber. The device displayed stable bipolar resistive switching with
on/off ratio ~ 103.

DAE Solid State Physics Symposium 2018

AIP Conf. Proc. 2115, 030274-1–030274-4; https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5113113
Published by AIP Publishing. 978-0-7354-1851-6/$30.00

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 EXPERIMENTAL SECTION
The deposition of WS2 films were performed by an optimized CVD technique [8]. A little measure of tungsten
oxide (WO3) powder (0.1gm) was spread consistently on alumina crucible boat separately. The substrate
(Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si wafers) were placed on the alumina crucible boat, as shown in figure 1. Prior to deposition, the
Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si substrates were ultrasonically cleaned with acetone followed by methanol for 10 min each. Finally, the
boat was then kept at the center of the quartz tube.

FIGURE 1. Schematic representation of the experimental setup for the WS2 fabrication.

Another boat containing sulphur powder (0.7gm) was placed inside at the upstream locale of the quartz tube and
ought to be warmed up by the tube heater. After the quartz tube was pumped down to pressure - 600 torr, argon (Ar)
gas was supplied through the inlet at 120 sccm and the Ar gas stream was kept up at this steady stream rate until the
whole deposition process was over. The heater was warmed up to 200°C and kept at this temperature for 10 minutes
to remove any moisture inside the tube. After reaching the temperature of 900Ԩ at the middle section of the furnace
with a warming rate of 10Ԩ/min, the same temperature was maintained for a time of 15 minutes. Thereafter, the
tube was allowed to chill off to the room temperature normally. Finally, the aluminum top electrodes were deposited
on WS2 film by thermal evaporation technique using shadow mask of diameter 240 μm to fabricate Al/WS2/Pt
structure, as schematic in figure 2. The structural and morphological properties were investigated by X-ray
diffraction technique (XRD) and field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), respectively. The current–
voltage (I–V) characteristics of the as-fabricated devices were measured using a Keithley 4200 semiconductor
characterization system.

FIGURE 2. Schematic diagram of the Al/WS2/Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si device.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Structural and morphological characterization

Figure 3(a) shows GI-X-ray diffraction pattern of the deposited WS2 layer and also confirms the crystalline nature of
the as-grown film. The mass materials demonstrate different peaks because of the reflection from various planes,
shows that, the bulk materials have numerous layers [9]. Here, the X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern collected from
the film of WS2 have prominent (002) peaks at 14.50 and weaker (110) peak at 57.80 [14]. Figure.3 (b) displays the
surface surface morphology of WS2 thin film on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si substrate. From figure, it is observed that WS2 is
evenly deposited on the substrate over a large area and the grains are of uniform dimension.

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 FIGURE 3. (a) XRD pattern of WS2 thin film (b) FESEM image (planar view) of the grown film.

Electrical characterization
Figure 4 (a) shows the current versus voltage characteristics of the Al/WS2/Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si switching device. The ON
and OFF state are referred to as LRS and HRS of the device, characterized by high and low current respectively.
During 1st sweep (0-3 volt) the current increases distinctly at a voltage +2.66 V (forming voltage), from 2.28×10-8A
to 1×10-6 A as shown in inset of figure 4(a). This takes the device to the low resistance ON state from high
resistance OFF state. The forming process was carried out in the pristine device in order to initiate a soft dielectric
breakdown inside the insulating layer.
After initiating the electroforming process, the device again switched from HRS to LRS at ~ +1.62V (called
“SET” i.e. ON state) and that from LRS to HRS at -1.45V (called “RESET” i.e. OFF state), the current compliance
(CC) for electroforming and the subsequent switching operations were set to be 1μA and 1 mA respectively. The

FIGURE 4. (a) Linear current versus voltage graph of the Al/WS2/Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si memory device (b) Bipolar curve
of the same in logarithmic scale up to 100th cycle

device remained in ON state even after the power was switched off, showing the non-volatile nature of the memory

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cell. Figure 4 (b) represents a typical bipolar resistive switching of Al/WS2/Pt device. Moreover, for real time
application it is necessary to test the reproducibility of the RS characteristics of the device. Therefore, 100 repeated
voltage sweeps were performed to check the uniformity in the performance. Notably, the memory cells exhibited
stable and reproducible RS characteristic under 100 consecutive voltage scans without any significant degradation in
resistance states, as depicted in figure 4 (b). The maximum resistance ratio of the switching device was obtained of
103.

CONCLUSION
Tungsten disulfide (WS2) thin film was grown over a large area inside a tube furnace by CVD process. The film
was found to be crystalline in nature with preferred orientation and uniformly distributed over the substrate
confirmed by XRD and FESEM analysis, respectively. Current-voltage characteristic showed a uniform and
reproducible bipolar resistive switching behavior of the Al/WS2/Pt device with an acceptable resistance ratio for
NVM application.

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