Resistive switching characteristics in manganese oxide and tantalum oxide devices

•The resistive switching behaviors with heterostructure were demonstrated.•The monodisperse oxide nanoparticles were chemically synthesized.•The device showed bipolar switching and repeatable self-compliance properties.•The bipolar switching was caused by the formation and rupture of conductive filaments in oxide layer.•The stable self-compliance property was demonstrated.

The monodisperse manganese oxide nanoparticles with an average diameter of 30 nm were chemically synthesized. The nanoparticles assembled as a close-packed monolayer on Pt bottom electrode by dip-coating and annealing process. The Ta/Ta2O5/MnO/Pt device was fabricated. The bipolar resistive switching behaviors could be caused by the formation and rupture of conductive filaments in the switching layers. The stable self-compliance property was demonstrated which can be attributed to the high resistance Ta/Ta2O5 interface, the Schottky barrier of Ta/Ta2O5, and the discontinuity of conduction band at Ta2O5 and MnO interface. The retention characteristics of Ta/Ta2O5/MnO/Pt device were investigated. The conduction mechanisms of Ohmic conduction, space charge limited conduction, Schottky conduction and Poole–Frenkel emission had been investigated for resistance switching mechanism.

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