Resistive switching behaviour of highly epitaxial CeO2 thin film for memory application

We report on the remarkable potential of highly epitaxial and pure (001)-oriented CeO2 thin films grown on conducting Nb-doped SrTiO3 (NSTO) substrates by laser molecular beam epitaxy for nonvolatile memory application. Resistive switching (RS) devices with the structure of Au/epi-CeO2/NSTO exhibit reversible and steady bipolar RS behaviour with large high/low resistance ratio and a narrow dispersion of the resistance values. Detailed analysis of the conduction mechanisms reveals that the trapping/detrapping processes and oxygen vacancies migration play important roles in the switching behaviour. In the light of XPS measurement results, the CeO2/NSTO interface with oxygen vacancies or defects is responsible for the RS effect. Furthermore, a model is proposed to explain this resistance switching behaviour. ((c) 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)