Dispersion improvement of unipolar resistive switching Ni/Cu xO/Cu device by bipolar operation method

Abstract

Thermally grown Cu x O thin films were adopted to fabricate a Ni/Cu x O/Cu structure and investigate its resistive switching properties. The resistance of the device can reversibly switch between the high-resistance-state (HRS) and the low-resistance-state (LRS) by dc voltages. The device with the unipolar switching behavior can be either operated by dc voltages in the same direction (unipolar operation method) or in the opposite directions (bipolar operation method). The switching dispersions when using the bipolar operation method were smaller than those when using the unipolar operation method. This may be attributed to the compensation of defect migration during switching cycles. The switching behaviors of the bipolar operation method and of the unipolar operation method were similar. The conducting filament model with the thermochemical effect was suggested to explain the resistive switching behaviors.