Mechanism and scalability in resistive switching of metal-Pr0.7Ca0.3MnO3 interface

The polarity-dependent resistive switching across metal-Pr0.7Ca0.3MnO3 interfaces is investigated. The data suggest that shallow defects in the interface dominate the switching. Their density and fluctuation, therefore, will ultimately limit the device size. While the defects generated/annihilated by the pulses and the associated carrier depletion seem to play the major role at lower defect density, the defect correlations and their associated hopping ranges appear to dominate at higher defect density. Therefore, the switching characteristics, especially the size scalability, may be altered through interface treatments. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.