Ta2O5-based metal-insulator-metal stacks for resistive random access memory were grown by atomic layer deposition technique only with the emphasis on different top metal-oxide interface engineering. The impact of top TiN electrode growth and NH3 treatment on dielectric chemical and electrical properties was discussed. In addition the TiN/Ta2O5/Al2O3/TiN stack with bilayer dielectric was grown and studied too. According to in vacuo XPS analysis at top interface both TiN/Ta2O5/TiN and TiN/Ta2O5 (NH3-treated)/TiN stacks comprise the TaOxNy, interlayer which is twice thicker in the case of stack with NH3 treatment (similar to 1.3 nm) in comparison with untreated one (similar to 0.7 nm). In vacuo XPS analysis also showed that 2 nm Al2O3 insert between Ta2O5 and top TiN electrode allowed to completely block formation of TaOxNy interlayer at TiN/Ta2O5/Al2O3/TiN stack. As a result it was found that TiN/Ta2O5/TiN demonstrated gradual and rather slow (similar to 10(-3) s) character of resistive switching while the switching at stack with bilayer Ta2O5/Al2O3 dielectric is much more abrupt, faster and it reveals more than one order of magnitude higher endurance. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.