title: Key concepts behind forming-free resistive switching incorporated with rectifying transport properties.
abstract: This work reports the effect of Ti diffusion on the bipolar resistive switching in Au/BiFeO3/Pt/Ti capacitor-like structures. Polycrystalline BiFeO3 thin films are deposited by pulsed laser deposition at different temperatures on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si substrates. From the energy filtered transmission electron microscopy and Rutherford backscattering spectrometry it is observed that Ti diffusion occurs if the deposition temperature is above 600°C. The current-voltage (I-V) curves indicate that resistive switching can only be achieved in Au/BiFeO3/Pt/Ti capacitor-like structures where this Ti diffusion occurs. The effect of Ti diffusion is confirmed by the BiFeO3 thin films deposited on Pt/sapphire and Pt/Ti/sapphire substrates. The resistive switching needs no electroforming process, and is incorporated with rectifying properties which is potentially useful to suppress the sneak current in a crossbar architecture. Those specific features open a promising alternative concept for nonvolatile memory devices as well as for other memristive devices like synapses in neuromorphic circuits.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Electronic Thin Films and Integrated Devices, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China.
authors.forename: Yao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shuai
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ou
authors.forename: Wenbo
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: Arndt
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mücklich
authors.forename: Danilo
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bürger
authors.forename: Shengqiang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Chuangui
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Yuanfu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Wanli
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Manfred
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Helm
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mikolajick
authors.forename: Oliver G
authors.initials: OG
authors.lastname: Schmidt
authors.forename: Heidemarie
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Schmidt