Interfacial Thermal Resistive Switching in (Pt,Cr)/SrTiO3 Devices

Abstract

The operation of oxide-based memristive devices relies on the fast accumulation and depletion of oxygen vacancies by an electric field close to the metal–oxide interface. Here, we show that the reversible change of the local concentration of oxygen vacancies at this interface also produces a change in the thermal boundary resistance (TBR), i.e., a thermal resistive switching effect. We used frequency domain thermoreflectance to monitor the interfacial metal–oxide TBR in (Pt,Cr)/SrTiO3 devices, showing a change of ≈20% under usual SET/RESET operation voltages, depending on the structure of the device. Time-dependent thermal relaxation experiments suggest ionic rearrangement along the whole area of the metal/oxide interface, apart from the ionic filament responsible for the electrical conductivity switching. The experiments presented in this work provide valuable knowledge about oxide ion dynamics in redox-based memristive devices.