Electrically-driven control of nanoscale chemical changes in amorphous complex oxide memristive devices

Abstract

In this paper we investigate the electrical response response of amorphous complex oxide memristors under different electrical stimulation. With the help of transmission electron microscopy and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy, we observed that those devices stimulated with voltage display strong cationic segregation at the nanoscale together with the partial crystallization of the oxide layer. On the other hand, devices stimulated with current maintain their amorphous character with no significative chemical changes. Our analysis also shows that current stimulation leads to a more stable memristive response with smaller cycle-to-cycle variations. These findings could contribute to the design of more reliable oxide-based memristors and underscore the crucial effect that has type of electrical stimulation applied to the devices has on their integrity and reliability.