Resistance switching in polycrystalline BiFeO3 thin films

We report resistance switching effects in polycrystalline pure BiFeO3 films prepared by a sol-gel method. By current-voltage and conductive atomic force microscope (c-AFM) measurements, resistance switching effects are observed in BiFeO3 films annealed at and above 650 degrees C. A fresh sample can be transformed into a low-resistive state by applying a high positive voltage without forming process and then be switched to a high-resistive state by applying a negative voltage. Both c-AFM and retention results suggest that the redistribution of oxygen vacancies in grain boundaries could play a key role on the resistance switching in the polycrystalline pure BiFeO3 films. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3467838]