Dielectric properties and ferroelectric resistive switching mechanism in the epitaxial (111) BiFeO₃ films

Resistive random access memory is promising for next-generation nonvolatile memory, which has high memory density, low power consumption, and fast read/write speed. However, the resistive switching (RS) mechanism in oxide ferroelectric thin film devices is still unclear. In this paper, Pt/BiFeO3/La0.5Sr0.5CoO3(Pt/BFO/LSCO) heterostructures were deposited on (111)SrTiO3(STO) substrates by magnetron sputtering. X-ray diffraction confirmed the epitaxial relationship between (111)BFO//(111)LSCO//(111)STO. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) showed that (111)BFO had an island structure with uniform grain distribution. The Pt/(111)BFO/(111)LSCO heterostructures exhibit obvious ferroelectricity and RS effects. The results of C-V analysis and I-V fitting indicate that the RS is caused by the space-charge-limited conduction mechanism.