Effects of Ni in Strontium Titanate Nickelate Thin Films for Flexible Nonvolatile Memory Applications

This paper investigated the performance of flexible resistive random access memory devices based on simple spin-coated sol-gel-derived strontium titanate nickelate (STN) thin films on polyethylene terephthalate substrate. A high on/off ratio of 105 and a uniform current distribution were demonstrated. The strong bonding between bidentate ligands of nickel (II) acetylacetone and titanium metal ion enabled the chelation effect, which contributed to the stability of the STN thin film, especially for moisture resistivity. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis was utilized to examine the effects on the resistive switching behaviors after 90 days under an atmospheric environment according to the chelation effect of the STN thin films. The devices were fabricated on a flexible plastic substrate, and they exhibited excellent durability upon repeated bending tests. They demonstrated good potential application for flexible and low-cost memory devices.