Bipolar Resistive Switching in Magnetostrictive Ni/PZT/Pt Structure for Non-Volatile Memory Applications

Resistive switching (RS) has significant potential for the forthcoming generation in logical and non-volatile memory devices. Owing to their switchable spontaneous polarization ferroelectric materials can be utilized for non-volatile memory applications, e.g., FeRAM, but their destructive readout scheme limits applications. The spontaneous electrical polarization of ferroelectric materials enhances the tuning charge properties at the ferroelectric/metal interface making them appropriate for RS applications. Here, the resistive switching performance of ferroelectric Pb(Zr0.6Ti0.4)O-3 (PZT) thin film grown on flexible Ni substrate using pulsed laser deposition were investigated. The PZT film showed both entrenched P-E ferroelectric hysteresis loop and reversible resistive switching behaviors with DC voltage sweep. Bipolar switching between a low resistance state to a high resistance state with a large ON/OFF ratio of 10(2 )and resistance retention potential up to 10(10 )cycles was observed. The current conduction mechanism can be understood by dual logarithm I-V curve fitting. The obtained results encourage the utilization of prepared Ni/PZT/Pt widget for the non-volatile memory applications.