Improvement of resistive switching in NiO-based nanowires by inserting Pt layers

Nonpolar resistive switching is demonstrated in polycrystalline NiO-based nanowires. The lower switching voltages and narrower switching distributions are exhibited in multilayered NiO/Pt nanowires, compared to the monolithic NiO nanowires. The temperature dependence of resistance at low resistance state reveals the conduction is attributed to the hopping through percolation paths composed of oxygen-related defects. The inserted Pt layers behave as intermediate electrodes to reduce migration length of oxygen ions and to store the oxygen ions near the electrodes. Therefore, the localized formation/migration of oxygen ions confines the occurrence of percolation paths, leading to improvement of the switching parameters. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4758482]