Effects of Standard Free Energy on NiO Bipolar Resistive Switching Devices

Metal/NiO/Pt films with various electrodes were fabricated to investigate the effects of standard free energy (SFE) on NiO resistive switching devices. By selecting Ti, Ta, Ag, Cu, and Co as the top electrodes (TEs), we found that the switching voltage was inversely proportional to the SFE. The reason for this is attributed to the different thicknesses of the oxidized interface between TE and NiO. Since the thickness of the oxidized interface depends on the SFE, this paper provides an effective way to control and adjust the switching voltage.