Memristive behavior of Al2O3 film with bottom electrode surface modified by Ag nanoparticles

The memristive behavior of Al2O3-based device is significantly improved by introducing Ag nanoparticles (NPs). Inserting Ag NPs can effectively reduce the switching voltages, increase the resistance ratio (about 10(4)) and enhance the sweep endurance (300 cycles). In particular, the stable switching properties are obtained by inserting an Ag NPs layer with an average diameter of 14 nm on the surface of bottom electrode, and the devices show a long retention time (more than 10(6) s) compared with the devices without Ag NPs. The switching mechanism is related to the oxygen-vacancy-based conducting filaments and the interfacial effect. The local enhancement and nonuniform distribution of electric field have the benefits to promote, induce and modulate the growth of conducting filaments, such as shape, location and orientation, which are responsible for the improvement performance of the devices.