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Understanding the Behavior of Oxygen Vacancies in an SrFeOx/Nb:SrTiO3 Memristor

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Abstract

SrFeOx resistive switching memory devices based on brownmillerite with an oxygen vacancy channel exhibit high durability and fast performance. In particular, a high on/off ratio of > 104 was observed when Nb-doped SrTiO3 was used as the bottom electrode. We studied a SrFeOx/Nb-doped SrTiO3 (111) device with a high on/off ratio, and used in-situ transmission electron microscopy to examine the crystalline structures of the SrFeOx layer in the high and low resistance states. We employed electron energy-loss spectroscopy to determine oxygen redistribution near the interface between the SrFeOx structure and Nb-doped SrTiO3. The resistance increased when oxygen vacancies accumulated at the interface between Nb-doped SrTiO3 and perovskite SrFeO3−δ, and decreased when oxygen ions filled the interface. In contrast, we observed little change in the oxygen concentration at the interface between Nb-doped SrTiO3 and brownmillerite SrFeO3−δ. We show that the resistance of the SrFeOx/Nb-doped SrTiO3 (111) device is mostly concentrated at the interface between the perovskite SrFeO3−δ and Nb-doped SrTiO3, which changes the barrier height.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Creative Materials Discovery Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (2017M3D1A1040688). C. U. Jung was supported by Hankuk University of Foreign Studies Research Fund of 2021. V. R. Nallagatla was supported through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (No. 2020R1A2C2006187). G.-S. Park was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grants funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning (MSIP) (NRF-2019M3F3A1A02071845). TEM and Cs-corrected STEM, EELS works were acquired using Thermofisher TENCAI F20 and ThemisZ installed at the Research Institute of Advanced Materials (RIAM) in Seoul National University. Part of this study has been performed using facilities at IBS Center for Correlated Electron Systems, Seoul National University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science & Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, 08826, South Korea

    Hyoung Gyun Kim, Gyeong-Su Park & Miyoung Kim

  2. Department of Physics and Oxide Research Centre, Memory and Catalyst Research Center, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Yongin, 17035, South Korea

    Ventaka Raveendra Nallagatla & Chang Uk Jung

  3. Center for Energy Materials Research, Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), Seoul, 02792, South Korea

    Deok-Hwang Kwon

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  1. Hyoung Gyun Kim
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Kim, H.G., Nallagatla, V.R., Jung, C.U. et al. Understanding the Behavior of Oxygen Vacancies in an SrFeOx/Nb:SrTiO3 Memristor. Electron. Mater. Lett. 18, 168–175 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13391-021-00334-4

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