Conductive Atomic Force Microscopy Study of the Resistive Switching in Yttria-Stabilized Zirconia Films with Au Nanoparticles

Dmitry Filatov; Inga Kazantseva; Dmitry Antonov; Ivan Antonov; Maria Shenina; Dmitry Pavlov; Oleg Gorshkov

doi:10.1155/2018/5489596

Conductive Atomic Force Microscopy Study of the Resistive Switching in Yttria-Stabilized Zirconia Films with Au Nanoparticles

Scanning. 2018 Jul 2:2018:5489596. doi: 10.1155/2018/5489596. eCollection 2018.

Authors

Dmitry Filatov¹, Inga Kazantseva², Dmitry Antonov¹, Ivan Antonov³, Maria Shenina¹, Dmitry Pavlov², Oleg Gorshkov^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Research and Educational Center for Physics of Solid State Nanostructures, Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod, 23 Gagarin Ave., Nizhny Novgorod 603950, Russia.
² Department of Physics, Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod, 23 Gagarin Ave., Nizhny Novgorod 603950, Russia.
³ Research Institute for Physics and Technology, Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod, 23 Gagarin Ave., Nizhny Novgorod 603950, Russia.

Abstract

We report on the investigation of the resistive switching (RS) in the ultrathin (≈5 nm in thickness) yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) films with single layers of Au nanoparticles (NPs) by conductive atomic force microscopy (CAFM). Besides the butterfly-type hysteresis loops in the current-voltage (I-V) curves of the contact of the CAFM probe to the investigated film surface corresponding to the bipolar RS, the negative differential resistance (NDR) has been observed in the I-V curves of the AFM probe contact to the YSZ films with Au NPs in the conductive ("ON") state. The NDR has been related to the resonant tunneling of electrons through the size-quantized energy states in the ultrafine (1 to 2 nm in diameter) Au NPs built in the conductive filaments in the YSZ films.