Resistive Switching Property of Copper Sulfide and its Dependence on Electrode

We investigated the effect of the electrode on the resistive switching property of (Cu, Zn, Pt)-Cu2S-W structures to clarify the role of metallic ions and electrodes in forming conductive paths in solid-electrolytes and also to improve the switching property. Notably, Zn-Cu2S-W and Pt-Cu2S-W structures that lack of oxidizable metal electrodes exhibited bipolar switching characteristics, and practically preferable switching properties with appropriately higher a turn-ON voltage and resistance were achieved for Zn-Cu2S-W in comparison to Cu-Cu2S-W with too low turn-ON voltage. In contrast, the degrading evolution of switching was observed in Pt-Cu2S-W. A simplified but convincing model is also suggested and discussed to explain the observations.