Photoelectrical reading in ZnO/Si NCs/p-Si resistive switching devices

Abstract: The increasing need for efficient memories with integrated functionalities in a single device has led the electronics community to investigate and develop different materials for resistive switching (RS) applications. Among these materials, the well-known Si nanocrystals (NCs) have demonstrated to exhibit RS properties, which add to the wealth of phenomena that have been studied on this model material platform. In this work, we present ZnO/Si NCs/p-Si resistive switching devices whose resistance state can be electrically read at 0 V under the application of low-power monochromatic illumination. The presented effect is studied in terms of the inner structural processes and electronic physics of the device. In particular, the creation of conductive filaments through the Si NC multilayers induces a low-resistance path for photogenerated carriers to get extracted from the device, whereas in the pristine state charge extraction is strongly quenched due to the insulating nature of the NC-embedding SiO2 matrix. In addition, spectral inspection of the generated photocurrent allowed unveiling the role of Si NCs in the reported effect. Overall, the hereby shown results pave the way to obtain memories whose RS state can be read under low-power conditions.
This work was financially supported by the German Research Foundation (Nos. ZA191/27-3 and ZA191/33-1) and the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (No. TEC2016-76849-C2-1-R). J.L.-V. and J.L.F., respectively, acknowledge financial support from a “Juan de la Cierva” postdoctoral fellowship (No. IJCI-2017-33451) from the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness, and the subprogram “Ayudas para la Formación de Profesorado Universitario” (No. FPU16/06257) from the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports

Object Details

• Location: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Frankfurt am Main
• Extent: Online-Ressource
• Language: Englisch
• Notes: Applied physics letters. - 116, 19 (2020) , 193503, ISSN: 1077-3118

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (where): Freiburg
• (who): Universität
• (when): 2021
• Creator: Lopéz-Vidrier, Julian ; Frieiro, J. L. ; Yazicioglu, Deniz ; Gutsch, Sebastian ; González-Flores, K. E. ; Zacharias, Margit ; Hernández, Sergi

Further information

• DOI: 10.1063/5.0005069
• URN: urn:nbn:de:bsz:25-freidok-1948197
• Rights: Der Zugriff auf das Objekt ist unbeschränkt möglich.
• Last update: 14.08.2025, 10:54 AM CEST