Abstract

Combining resistive switching and magnetoresistance in a system exhibits great potential for application in multibit nonvolatile data storage. It is in significance and difficulty to seek a material with resistances that can be stably switched at different resistance states modulated by an electrical field and a magnetic field. In this paper, we propose a novel electrode/ZnO/ZnO-Co/electrode device in which the storage layer combines a nanostructured ZnO-Co layer and a ZnO layer. The device exhibits bipolar resistive switching characteristics, which can be explained by the accumulation of oxygen vacancies due to the migration of oxygen ions by external electrical stimuli and the contribution of Co particles in the ZnO-Co layer. Moreover, the magnetoresistance effect at room temperature can be observed in the device at high and low resistance states. Therefore, through electrical and magnetic control, four resistance states are achieved in this system, presenting a new possibility towards enhancing data densities by many folds.

Highlights

  • Resistive random access memory (ReRAM) is considered as one of the most promising candidates for next-generation memories because of its simple structure, low cost, and high-density integration[1,2,3]

  • The room temperature (RT) MR effect has been achieved in nanostructured ZnO-Co films[15,16,17], and highly reproducible resistive switching (RS) properties have been achieved in ZnO systems[7]

  • This study proposes a novel Pt/ZnO/ZnO-Co/Au device, in which the storage layer combines a nanostructured ZnO-Co layer and a ZnO layer

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Summary

Methods

A nanostructured ZnO-Co film with an underlayer of ZnO (approximately 80 nm) was deposited on the Si(100)/ SiO2/Ti/Pt substrates by magnetron sputtering at RT. Thereafter, the inert Au top electrode (TE) with diameter of 500 μm and thickness of about 40 nm was deposited with the aid of a shadow mask on the ZnO-Co film by magnetron sputtering. The current–voltage (I–V) characteristics were measured in a two-probe configuration by a Keithley 2400 semiconductor characterization system at RT, and during the measurements, the bias voltages were applied on the TE while the BE was grounded. MR at RT and the temperature dependence of the resistance were measured by a physical property measurement system (PPMS). The structure of the sample was determined by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscope (TEM)

Results
Author Contributions
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