Intrinsic mechanism in nonvolatile polycrystalline zirconium oxide sandwiched structure

Based on the ZrO2 core layer, two kinds of resistive memory cells with Ag/ZrO2/Ag and Ag/ZrO2/ITO sandwiched structures were prepared by a magnetron sputtering system. After thermal treatment, the sample cells show the stable bipolar resistive switching characteristics at room temperature in the current-voltage measurements. The intrinsic mechanism can be well interpreted by the space charge limited conduction effect with charged defects. Two different types of bottom electrode Ag and ITO showed different characteristics. The excellent resistive switching characteristics in the sandwiched structure with ZrO2 core layer makes it to be a promising candidate for the nonvolatile storage and programmable analog circuit applications.