Anomalous rectification in a purely electronic memristor

Abstract

An anomalous rectification was observed in a purely electronic memristive device Ti/ZnO/Pt. It could be due to (1) an Ohmic or quasi-Ohmic contact at the ZnO/Pt interface and (2) a Schottky contact at the Ti/ZnO interface. The Ohmic contact originates from the reduction of ZnO occurring in the whole film instead of only at the Ti/ZnO interface. The Schottky contact may come from moisture adsorbed in the nanoporous ZnO. The conduction in the electroformed device is controlled by the carrier trapping/detrapping of the trap sites, inducing a poor rectification and high nonlinearity. Furthermore, a complementary resistive switching was achieved.