Direct evidences of filamentary resistive switching in Pt/Nb-doped SrTiO3 junctions

The first concerned question on the fundamental physics of the resistive switching (RS) effect in metal/Nb-doped SrTiO3 junctions is whether the RS does take place at the whole interface or at some local regions of the interface. Even though several investigations provide the clues of the filamentary nature of the RS, direct evidences are still required. Moreover, there is obvious inconsistency between the possible filamentary feature and the observed capacitance-voltage (C-V) hysteresis loops. Here, we report direct evidences of a filamentary RS effect in Pt/Nb-doped SrTiO3 junctions. The virgin Pt/NSTO junctions show an initial RS effect. The current-voltage (I-V) characteristic of the initial RS and the C-V characteristic in the virgin junctions are interpreted by using the theory of metal/semiconductor contacts. The correspondence between the initial RS and the C-V hysteresis loops is also discussed. The most important is that an electroforming process is observed at a large forward voltage, which is a direct indication of the formation of conductive filaments across the Pt/NSTO interface. Following the electroforming, the Pt/NSTO junctions exhibit a filamentary RS effect. The I-V characteristic of the filamentary RS deviates from the theoretical prediction of metal/semiconductor interfaces. However, the C-V characteristic is almost the same as that of the virgin junctions. This demonstrates that the conductive filaments are formed at local regions of the Pt/NSTO interface and a majority of the interface remains invariant. The results clearly show that a filamentary RS effect occurs in the Pt/NSTO junctions and that the observed C-V hysteresis loops are not correlated to the filamentary RS. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.