TITLE:
Resistive Switching in Stabilized Zirconia Films Studied by Conductive Atomic Force Microscopy
AUTHORS:
Dmitry Filatov, Dmitry Antonov, Ivan Antonov, Alexander Kasatkin, Oleg Gorshkov
KEYWORDS:
Resistive Switching, Yttria Stabilized Zirconia, Conductive Atomic Force Microscopy
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering,
Vol.5 No.1,
January
4,
2017
ABSTRACT: We have applied Conductive Atomic Force Microscopy (CAFM) to study the microscopic mechanism of resistive switching in the ultrathin (3 - 5 nm) yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) films. Using CAFM, we were able to trace the growth of the individual conductive filaments, which are considered now to be responsible for the resistive switching effect in the transition metal oxides. The growth of the filaments has been proven to be initiated by the defects in the film material including the ones, which are the concentrators of the electric field, in particular, by the roughness (hillocks) of the film/substrate interface. The electron transport via individual filaments has been studied. Besides the butterfly-type hysteresis in the current-voltage (I-V) curves of the probe- to-sample contact typical for the bipolar resistive switching, we have observed the I-V curves with resonant peaks attributed to the resonant electron tunneling via the localized electron states in the filaments.