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.
Keywords: active interfaces; ionic devices; memristor; thermal conductivity; thermal memories; thermal resistive switching.