Effect of Cu ions assisted conductive filament on resistive switching memory behaviors in ZnFe2O4-based devices

Resistive random access memory (RRAM) has been developing as a most promising non-volatile memory in the current memory technology. In this work, ZnFe2O4 (ZFO) nano powder were firstly prepared by co-precipitation assisted hydrothermal process. Further, the resistive switching memory devices with Ag/Cu doped ZnFe2O4 (CZFO)/Au/Si and Ag/ZFO/Au/Si structures grown on silicon (Si) substrate were prepared by radio frequency magnetron sputtering, and their memory behaviors were contrastively investigated. It is observed the Cu doping can obviously affect the bipolar resistive switching memory characteristics. Thus a model concerning the formation and rupture of Cu ions assisted conductive filament inside the CZFO layer is suggested to explain the change of memory behaviors. These works provide a foundation for exploring the memory application of multifunctional material and further regulate their nonvolatile memory behaviors. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.