Aging effect of resistive switching in Metal/ZnO/Pt device

N. Kambhala, S. Angappane
Phys. Status Solidi B, 1700208 (2017); (DOI: 10.1002/pssb.201700208).

Resistive switching (I–V characteristics) study of Ag/ZnO/Pt device from 1st day to 21st day.

We have studied the stability of resistive switching behavior observed in RF sputtered ZnO thin film deposited on Pt/TiO2/SiO2/Si substrate with two different top electrodes, such as Ag and Al. ZnO thin film was deposited using the RF magnetron sputtering on Pt/TiO2/SiO2/Si. For Ag/ZnO/Pt device, the top contact was made with conducting silver (Ag) paste. Interestingly, there was no resistive switching behavior observed for freshly prepared devices. However, we have observed the switching behavior after few days. The switching voltage is found to be about 0.5 V. The resistive switching is found to appear due to the formation and rupture of conducting filaments made of the oxygen vacancies. Notably, the aging based resistive switching disappears after few days and shows a linear I–V curve, due to the increase of conducting filaments and the formation of conducting paths across the ZnO film. We have shown the role of aging in resistive switching of ZnO films fabricated in the laboratory ambience.