Resistive switching and electrical control of ferromagnetism in a Ag/HfO2/Nb:SrTiO3/Ag resistive random access memory (RRAM) device at room temperature

Abstract

Electrically induced resistive switching and modulated ferromagnetism are simultaneously found in a Ag/HfO2/Nb:SrTiO3/Ag resistive random access memory device at room temperature. The bipolar resistive switching (RS) can be controlled by the modification of a Schottky-like barrier with an electron injection–trapped/detrapped process at the interface of HfO2–Nb:SrTiO3. The multilevel RS transition can be observed in the reset process with larger negative voltage sweepings, which is connected to the different degree of electron detrapping in the interfacial depletion region of the HfO2 layer during the reset process. The origin of the electrical control of room-temperature ferromagnetism may be connected to the change of density of oxygen vacancies in the HfO2 film. The multilevel resistance states and the electric field controlled ferromagnetism have potential for applications in ultrahigh-density storage and magnetic logic device.