Nonpolar resistance switching of metal/binary-transition-metal oxides/metal sandwiches: homogeneous/inhomogeneous transition of current distribution

Abstract

Exotic features of a metal/oxide/metal (MOM) sandwich, which will be the basis for a drastically innovative nonvolatile memory device, is brought to light from a physical point of view. Here the insulator is one of the ubiquitous and classic binary-transition-metal oxides (TMO), such as Fe2O3, NiO, and CoO. The sandwich exhibits a resistance that reversibly switches between two states: one is a highly resistive off-state and the other is a conductive on-state. Several distinct features were universally observed in these binary TMO sandwiches: namely, nonpolar switching, non-volatile threshold switching, and current--voltage duality. From the systematic sample-size dependence of the resistance in on- and off-states, we conclude that the resistance switching is due to the homogeneous/inhomogeneous transition of the current distribution at the interface.

7 pages, 5 figures, REVTeX4, submitted to Phys. Rev. B (Feb. 23, 2007). If you can't download a PDF file of this manscript, an alternative one can be found on the author's website: http://staff.aist.go.jp/i.inoue/

References in corpus (3)

• Hysteretic current-voltage characteristics and resistance switching at a rectifying Ti/Pr${}_{0.7}$Ca${}_{0.3}$MnO${}_3$ interface
• Field-Driven Hysteretic and Reversible Resistive Switch at the Ag-Pr0.7Ca0.3MnO3 Interface
• Interfaces of correlated electron systems: Proposed mechanism for colossal electroresistance

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