Bipolar resistive switching characteristics in CuO/ZnO bilayer structure

Abstract

Resistive switching characteristics in Cu/ZnO/AZO (Al-doped ZnO) were investigated. Reproducible bipolar resistance switching properties were observed in the single oxide layer (SL)-based device. To improve the switching performance, a CuO–ZnO bilayer (BL) was used to form a Cu/CuO/ZnO/AZO structure. RS characteristics such as retention time, endurance, variations of threshold voltage as well as distribution of resistance were investigated. The results demonstrated that the BL devices exhibit more excellent switching performance than SL devices. The conduction mechanisms of high and low resistance states can be explained by trap-controlled space charge limited current (SCLC) and Ohmic's Law, respectively. The CuO layer is proposed as a “reservoir” of oxygen ions in set process and acting as an oxygen ions “supplier” in reset process, which plays a critical role in recovery/rupture of filament paths and greatly improves the switching characteristics of the device.