The electrical stabilities of the Au/Co3O4/ITO memory device at LRS and HRS have been examined

using endurance and retention test. It was observed that the stable HRS and LRS states were maintained with an R OFF/R ON ratio of about 25 for 200 pulses, and almost no degradation in the resistance ratio was observed during pulse measurements, as shown in Figure 3b. The device well maintained its switching states (HRS to LRS ratio) for more than 10 s [4], which indicates that Au/Co3O4/ITO memory cell can be qualified as a RRAM device due to its decent retention time. To further investigate the origin of switching behavior, the I-V curves were replotted on a log-log scale, as shown in Figure 3c. The high conductive state (LRS) slightly follows the ohmic conduction

behavior. However, the low conductive state (HRS) was found to follow an ln I vs. V 0.5 behavior with a slope of DMXAA ic50 2.6 in the inset of Figure 3c, which leads to following a Schottky-type conduction emission. For resistive switching operations in these devices, the distribution of oxygen ions and its motion can be discussed on the GDC-0068 in vitro basis of an ionic model [26–28] that describes the hopping mechanism of O2− ions between different potentials. In our device, ITO used as a bottom electrode can act as a source/reservoir of oxygen ions [29], and their gradient may produce some diffusion flux (from higher concentration to lower concentration). So, the diffusion coefficient (denoted as D) is expressed as [30] (1) where D see more o is the diffusion constant, E a is the activation energy of oxygen vacancy/defect diffusion, k is Boltzmann’s constant, and T is the absolute temperature. Hence, the dynamics of oxygen concentration (V o) could be described by taking into account both diffusion (thermal) and drift (electric) effects. Thus, the net continuity equation with its time and displacement dependence is expressed as [30] (2) where the left side of Equation 2 represents time-dependent evolution of oxygen

concentration (V o), D is the diffusion coefficient, υ is the drift velocity, and τ represents the recombination time of oxygen ions with metallic cobalt to offset the contribution from oxygen vacancies. In the Au/Co3O4/ITO device, the applied electrical field generates the drift motion of the oxygen ions, thus inducing the local reduction of Co3O4 with the formation of metallic conducting filaments. With further increase of potential (higher voltage), a substantial Joule heating effect may be generated in the device, which promotes oxygen ion diffusion from ITO into Co3O4. As a consequence, the migration of oxygen ions may reduce oxygen vacancies and generate Co vacancies simultaneously, which weaken the conducting filaments first and then shatter (due to further joule heating) them by setting the device to threshold switching state [31, 32], as illustrated in Figure 4.