ELECTROCHEMICAL FABRICATION OF TWO TERMINAL NANOSCALE RESISTIVE SWITCHES

Here we report a simple electrochemical approach for fabricating two terminal resistive switching devices. This involved electrodeposition of silver (Ag) onto one set of electrodes (E1) that connected to a second set of electrodes (E2) of an interdigitated array of electrodes with a 5µm separation. Under appropriate deposition conditions, Ag nanowires (Ag NWs) grew from E2 and cross over to E1. Then Ag was removed from electrodes E2 by electrochemical oxidation, leading to a break in the connection between Ag NW and E2. The initially high resistance (Off state) decreased dramatically (On state) at potentials greater than ± 1 V due to Ag filament formation between the Ag NW and E2 electrode. These filament based switching devices exhibited an on/off ratio over 10⁴ and long endurance.