Resistive switching in ultra-thin La0.7Sr0.3MnO3/SrRuO3 superlattices

Superlattices may play an important role in next generation electronic and spintronic devices if the key-challenge of the reading and writing data can be solved. This challenge emerges from the coupling of low dimensional individual layers with macroscopic world. Here, we report the study of the resistive switching characteristics of a hybrid structure made out of a superlattice with ultrathin layers of two ferromagnetic metallic oxides, La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 (LSMO) and SrRuO3 (SRO). Bipolar resistive switching memory effects are measured on these LSMO/SRO superlattices, and the observed switching is explainable by ohmic and space charge-limited conduction laws. It is evident from the endurance characteristics that the on/off memory window of the cell is greater than 14, which indicates that this cell can reliably distinguish the stored information between high and low resistance states. The findings may pave a way to the construction of devices based on nonvolatile resistive memory effects. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.