Three-terminal resistive switch based on metal/metal oxide redox reactions

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 7; no. 1; pp. 7452 - 7
• Main Authors: Huang, Mantao, Tan, Aik Jun, Mann, Maxwell, Bauer, Uwe, Ouedraogo, Raoul, Beach, Geoffrey S. D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 07.08.2017; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 639/301/1005; 639/301/357; Cobalt; Data storage; Electrodes; Fabrication; Humanities and Social Sciences; Kinetics; Metal oxides; Metals; multidisciplinary; Oxidation; Redox reactions; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Thin films; Voltage
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-06954-x

A solid-state three-terminal resistive switch based on gate-voltage-tunable reversible oxidation of a thin-film metallic channel is demonstrated. The switch is composed of a cobalt wire placed under a GdOx layer and a Au top electrode. The lateral resistance of the wire changes with the transition between cobalt and cobalt oxide controlled by a voltage applied to the top electrode. The kinetics of the oxidation and reduction process are examined through time- and temperature-dependent transport measurements. It is shown that that reversible voltage induced lateral resistance switching with a ratio of 10 3 can be achieved at room temperature. The reversible non-volatile redox reaction between metal and metal oxide may provide additional degrees of freedom for post-fabrication control of properties of solid-state materials. This type of three-terminal device has potential applications in neuromorphic computing and multilevel data storage, as well as applications that require controlling a relatively large current.