Multilevel unipolar resistive switching with negative differential resistance effect in Ag/SiO2/Pt device

In this paper, we report a multilevel unipolar resistive switching (RS) phenomenon with negative differential resistance (NDR) effect in Ag/SiO2/Pt sandwich structure. After positive electroforming process with low compliance current (ICC, 10 nA), a conductive filament consisting of isolated Ag nanocrystals is formed inside SiO2 layer. Then, an abnormal unipolar resistive switching (RESET voltage is larger than SET voltage) with NDR effect is obtained under negative voltage sweep without ICC. Based on I-V fitting and temperature dependence of the resistance results, we suggest that the abnormal unipolar RS is dominated by the charging/discharging of carriers in Ag nanocrystals. In addition, we demonstrate that the unipolar RS exhibits good performances, including large Roff/Ron ratio, high uniformity, long retention time, and multilevel storage potential. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.