Temperature induced low voltage write-once-read-many resistive switching in Ag/BTO/Ag thin films

The effect of deposition temperature on surface morphology and write once read many times resistive switching properties of RF sputtered BaTiO 3 (BTO) thin films has been demonstrated. A conventional sandwiched structure was used to fabricate the memory cell with FTO as bottom electrode and silver as top electrode. The devices exhibit switching from a high resistance state to a low resistance state with the conductive filament(s) formation through BTO active layer. The switching performances are investigated for different devices with different deposition temperatures, varying from room temperature (RT) to 450 °C. All the devices are characterized for a voltage sweep of − 1.5 V to 1.5 V with 12,000 pulses for retention and 300 write-read erase read cycles. Shifting in the switching voltage to a lower value from 1.31 to 0.49 V (450 °C) is recorded with the increased deposition temperature. We observe the highest on-off ratio of 5.9 × 10 6 for sample deposited at room temperature and 0.9 × 10 4 for sample deposited at 450 °C. The write read erase read characterizations for over 1000 cycles were carried out for all four devices to test the device reliability and observe the stable read current over the period irrespective of erase cycles. The fabricated devices show stable and reliable reading endurance and data retention characteristics for more than 12,000 s.