Studies on nonvolatile resistance memory switching in ZnO thin films

Six decades of research on ZnO has recently sprouted a new branch in the domain of resistive random access memories. Highly resistive and c-axis oriented ZnO thin films were grown by us using d.c. discharge assisted pulsed laser deposition on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si substrates at room temperature. The resistive switching characteristics of these films were studied in the top-bottom configuration using current-voltage measurements at room temperature. Reliable and repeated switching of the resistance of ZnO thin films was obtained between two well defined states of high and low resistance with a narrow dispersion and small switching voltages. Resistance ratios of the high resistance state to low resistance state were found to be in the range of 2–5 orders of magnitude up to 20 test cycles. The conduction mechanism was found to be dominated by the Ohmic behaviour in low resistance states, while Poole-Frenkel emission was found to dominate in high resistance state. The achieved characteristics of the resistive switching in ZnO thin films seem to be promising for nonvolatile memory applications.