Resistive switching behaviour of highly epitaxial CeO₂ thin film for memory application

Abstract

Abstract We report on the remarkable potential of highly epitaxial and pure (001)‐oriented CeO 2 thin films grown on conducting Nb‐doped SrTiO 3 (NSTO) substrates by laser molecular beam epitaxy for nonvolatile memory application. Resistive switching (RS) devices with the structure of Au/epi‐CeO 2 /NSTO exhibit reversible and steady bipolar RS behaviour with large high/low resistance ratio and a narrow dispersion of the resistance values. Detailed analysis of the conduction mechanisms reveals that the trapping/detrapping processes and oxygen vacancies migration play important roles in the switching behaviour. In the light of XPS measurement results, the CeO 2 /NSTO interface with oxygen vacancies or defects is responsible for the RS effect. Furthermore, a model is proposed to explain this resistance switching behaviour. (© 2014 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)