Investigations of lanthanum-doped bismuth ferrite thin films for resistive switching random access memory (ReRAM) applications
摘要
The aim of the current study is to investigate the influence of Lanthanum (La) doping on the structural, morphological, compositional, and elemental properties BiFeO3 (BFO) thin films and also to determine their application toward the resistive switching memory devices. Spray pyrolysis technique was used to deposit La-doped BFO thin films onto glass substrates and the La doping concentration was varied from 1 to 8%. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis revealed a structural phase transition from rhombohedral to monoclinic/tetragonal with the increase of La doping concentration. A morphological study showed that La doping significantly improved the surface smoothness of thin films. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis shows the presence of oxygen vacancies (VOs) and Fe2+ oxidation states, highlighting the role of resistive switching behavior. Using La:BFO as an intermediate layer, the resistive switching characteristics of fabricated ITO/La(x)/Al (X = 1 to 8%) device configurations were studied; however, the ITO/La(5)/Al-based resistive switching device exhibit enhanced resistive switching characteristics. The underlying resistive switching (RS) mechanism of the ITO/La(5)/Al devices was attributed to the formation and rupture of conductive filaments.