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Resistive States in Strontium Titanate Thin Films: Bias Effects and Mechanisms at High and Low Temperatures

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Resistive Switching: Oxide Materials, Mechanisms, Devices and Operations

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Abstract

A study on charge transport properties of thin film Fe-doped SrTiO3 epitaxially grown on Nb-doped SrTiO3 is reported. Electric measurements between 350 °C and 750 °C show a transition from predominant ionic to electronic conduction and lower conductivity of the thin films compared to the bulk of polycrystalline samples. Defect chemical changes at elevated temperature were investigated by applying a bias voltage. A model is described that successfully predicts additional features such as inductive loops or extra semicircles measureable by impedance spectroscopy as well as the complicated time dependence of electric DC measurements. With this model, it is also possible to calculate the negligibly small ionic conductivity next to the dominating electronic conductivity in the high temperature regime. The ionic conductivity is referenced by oxygen isotope depth profiling. Changes in resistive states in Fe-doped SrTiO3 thin films at high temperature and moderate fields are compared to room temperature resistive switching phenomena at high electric fields. A conductive filament-based switching process is observed at room temperature, and the capability for forming such filaments and their electric properties is further analyzed using microelectrodes.

This chapter was originally published as a paper in the Journal of Electroceramics: M. Kubicek, S. Taibl, E. Navickas, H. Hutter, G. Fafilek, “Resistive states in strontium titanate thin films: Bias effects and mechanisms at high and low temperature,” J Electroceramics, Vol. 39, nos 1–4 (2017), Pages 197–209. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10832-017-0081-2.

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Acknowledgments

Klaudia Hradil and Werner Artner are gratefully acknowledged for XRD and RSM measurements. The authors gratefully acknowledged Johannes Bernardi for TEM measurements, Andreas Limbeck for ICP-MS measurements, and Gernot Friedbacher for AFM measurements. The authors are also grateful for the financial support by Austrian Science Fund (FWF) project: F4509-N16.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Chemical Technologies and Analytics, Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria

    M. Kubicek, S. Taibl, E. Navickas, H. Hutter, G. Fafilek & J. Fleig

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  1. M. Kubicek
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  2. S. Taibl
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  3. E. Navickas
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  4. H. Hutter
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  5. G. Fafilek
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  6. J. Fleig
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Correspondence to M. Kubicek .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Jennifer Rupp

  2. Elettronica, Informazione Bioingegneria, Politecnico di Milano, Dipto di, MILANO, Milano, Italy

    Daniele Ielmini

  3. Research Centre Juelich, Jülich, Germany

    Ilia Valov

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Kubicek, M., Taibl, S., Navickas, E., Hutter, H., Fafilek, G., Fleig, J. (2022). Resistive States in Strontium Titanate Thin Films: Bias Effects and Mechanisms at High and Low Temperatures. In: Rupp, J., Ielmini, D., Valov, I. (eds) Resistive Switching: Oxide Materials, Mechanisms, Devices and Operations. Electronic Materials: Science & Technology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42424-4_13

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