Temperature dependences of ferroelectricity and resistive switching behavior of epitaxial BiFeO3 thin filmsProject supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51272078 and 51332007), the State Key Program for Basic Research of China (Grant No 2015CB921202), the Guangdong Provincial Universities and Colleges Pearl River Scholar Funded Scheme, China (2014), the International Science & Technology Cooperation Platform Program of Guangzhou, China (Grant No. 2014J4500016)

• Published in: Chinese physics B Vol. 24; no. 10
• Main Authors: Lu, Zeng-Xing, Song, Xiao, Zhao, Li-Na, Li, Zhong-Wen, Lin, Yuan-Bin, Zeng, Min, Zhang, Zhang, Lu, Xu-Bing, Wu, Su-Juan, Gao, Xing-Sen, Yan, Zhi-Bo, Liu, Jun-Ming
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IOP Publishing 01.10.2015
• Subjects: ferroelectric; memristor; resistive random access memory
• ISSN: 1674-1056
• DOI: 10.1088/1674-1056/24/10/107705

We investigate the resistive switching and ferroelectric polarization properties of high-quality epitaxial BiFeO3 thin films in various temperature ranges. The room temperature current-voltage (I-V) curve exhibits a well-established polarization-modulated memristor behavior. At low temperatures (< 253 K), the I-V curve shows an open circuit voltage (OCV), which possibly originates from the dielectric relaxation effects, accompanied with a current hump due to the polarization reversal displacement current. While at relative higher temperatures (> 253 K), the I-V behaviors are governed by both space-charge-limited conduction (SCLC) and Ohmic behavior. The polarization reversal is able to trigger the conduction switching from Ohmic to SCLC behavior, leading to the observed ferroelectric resistive switching. At a temperature of > 298 K, there occurs a new resistive switching hysteresis at high bias voltages, which may be related to defect-mediated effects.