Controllable resistive switching behaviors in heteroepitaxial LaNiO3/Nb:SrTiO3 Schottky junctions through oxygen vacancies engineering

Perovskite oxide-based memristors have been extensively investigated for the application of non-volatile memories, and the oxygen vacancies associated with Schottky barrier changing are considered as the origin of the memristive behaviors. However, due to the difference of device fabrication progress, various resistive switching (RS) behaviors have been observed even in one device, deteriorating the stability and reproducibility of devices. Precisely controlling the oxygen vacancies distribution and shedding light on the behind physic mechanism of these RS behaviors, are highly desired to help improve the performance and stability of such Schottky junction-based memristors. In this work, the epitaxial LaNiO3 (LNO)/Nb:SrTiO3 (NSTO) is adopted to explore the influence of oxygen vacancy profiles on these abundant RS phenomena. It demonstrates that the migration of oxygen vacancy in LNO films plays a key role in memristive behaviors. When the effect of oxygen vacancies at the LNO/NSTO interface is negligible, improving the oxygen vacancies concentration in LNO film could facilitate resistance on/off ratio of HRS and LRS, and the corresponding conducting mechanisms attributes to the thermionic emission and tunneling-assisted thermionic emission, respectively. Moreover, it is found that reasonably increasing the oxygen vacancies at LNO/NSTO interface makes trap-assisted tunneling possible, also providing an effective way to improve the performance of the device. The results in this work have clearly elucidated the relationship between oxygen vacancy profile and RS behaviors, and give physical insights into the strategies for improving the device performance of Schottky junction-based memristors.

Automated summary

This study investigates the influence of oxygen vacancy profiles on the resistive switching (RS) behaviors in perovskite oxide-based memristors. It is found that improving the oxygen vacancies concentration in the LaNiO3 (LNO) film can enhance the resistance on/off ratio of high and low resistance states, with different conducting mechanisms involved. Increasing the oxygen vacancies at the LNO/Nb:SrTiO3 (NSTO) interface enables trap-assisted tunneling, thus improving the device performance. This work provides physical insights into strategies for enhancing the performance of Schottky junction-based memristors.