Effects of electrode material and configuration on the characteristics of planar resistive switching devices

We report that electrode engineering, particularly tailoring the metal work function, measurement configuration and geometric shape, has significant effects on the bipolar resistive switching (RS) in lateral memory devices based on self-doped SrTiO3 (STO) single crystals. Metals with different work functions (Ti and Pt) and their combinations are used to control the junction transport (either ohmic or Schottky-like). We find that the electric bias is effective in manipulating the concentration of oxygen vacancies at the metal/STO interface, influencing the RS characteristics. Furthermore, we show that the geometric shapes of electrodes (e. g., rectangular, circular, or triangular) affect the electric field distribution at the metal/oxide interface, thus plays an important role in RS. These systematic results suggest that electrode engineering should be deemed as a powerful approach toward controlling and improving the characteristics of RS memories. (C) 2013 Author(s). All article content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.