Nature Communications
Nature Communications
5 years ago

Giant tunnelling electroresistance in metal/ferroelectric/semiconductor tunnel junctions by engineering the Schottky barrier

Giant tunnelling electroresistance in metal/ferroelectric/semiconductor tunnel junctions by engineering the Schottky barrier
Chunyan Zheng, Aidong Li, Di Wu, Zhongnan Xi, Jieji Ruan, Chen Li, Zheng Wen, Jiyan Dai
Recently, ferroelectric tunnel junctions have attracted much attention due to their potential applications in non-destructive readout non-volatile memories. Using a semiconductor electrode has been proven effective to enhance the tunnelling electroresistance in ferroelectric tunnel junctions. Here we report a systematic investigation on electroresistance of Pt/BaTiO3/Nb:SrTiO3 metal/ferroelectric/semiconductor tunnel junctions by engineering the Schottky barrier on Nb:SrTiO3 surface via varying BaTiO3 thickness and Nb doping concentration. The optimum ON/OFF ratio as great as 6.0 × 106, comparable to that of commercial Flash memories, is achieved in a device with 0.1 wt% Nb concentration and a 4-unit-cell-thick BaTiO3 barrier. With this thinnest BaTiO3 barrier, which shows a negligible resistance to the tunnelling current but is still ferroelectric, the device is reduced to a polarization-modulated metal/semiconductor Schottky junction that exhibits a more efficient control on the tunnelling resistance to produce the giant electroresistance observed. These results may facilitate the design of high performance non-volatile resistive memories.

Publisher URL: http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms15217

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms15217

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