Effect of oxide/oxide interface on polarity dependent resistive switching behavior in ZnO/ZrO2 heterostructures

The effect of oxide/oxide interface for controlling the migration process of oxygen vacancies (or oxygen ions) on resistive switching behaviors has been investigated by fabricating the ZrO2/ZnO oxide heterostructures. Completely different resistive switching behaviors are observed in the heterostructures with a set process under a different bias polarity. It is demonstrated that the change of the oxide/oxide interface barrier height determining the migration of oxygen vacancies (or oxygen ions) leads to the current direction-dependent resistive switching. Furthermore, the ZnO/ZrO2 heterostructure with the homogeneous resistive switching behavior could be potentially applied as a controllable and stable multistate memory by controlling reset-stop voltages. Our method opens up an opportunity to explore the resistive switching mechanism and develop resistance switching devices with specific functions through engineering oxide/oxide interfaces in oxide heterostructures. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.