Effect of the Electrode Material on the Electrical-Switching Characteristics of Nonvolatile Memory Devices Based on Poly($o$-anthranilic acid) Thin Films

Abstract

We investigated the effect of the electrode material on the electrical-switching characteristics (i.e., electrical-switching behavior, switching voltage, and on/off current ratio) of a nonvolatile resistive-memory device based on an active poly( <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">o</i> -anthranilic acid) thin film. The switching characteristics of the active polymer layer were found to depend strongly on the bottom-electrode (BE) material. Depending on which material was used, the devices exhibited two different switching behaviors, namely, a polarity-dependent and a polarity-independent one. The polarity-independent switching behavior was particularly observed in devices fabricated with an aluminum BE, which can be attributed to the formation of a native oxide layer on this substrate.