Multiferroic properties and resistive switching behaviors of Ni0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4 thin films

In this study, we have demonstrated bipolar resistive switching along with ferroelectricities of Ni0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4 (NZFO) thin films using Au/NZFO/LNO/Si structure. Previous studies have indicated that the type of intrinsic defects and defect concentration could be changed by choosing the annealing atmosphere. In this work, the influence of anneal atmosphere on structure and properties of NZFO was investigated by annealing samples respectively in oxygen and nitrogen. According to experiment results, oxygen vacancy and the strain stress existed in NZFO films have large effect on properties of NZFO. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns showed that the NZFO thin films exhibited mixed polycrystalline and high a-axis orientation under different annealing atmosphere. The saturation magnetization of the samples annealed in nitrogen and oxygen atmospheres were 0.414 and 0.892 emu/cm3, and the remnant polarization values were 1.789 and 1.082 μC/cm2, respectively. The I-V curves of the samples indicated that NZFO have improved resistive switching property annealed in nitrogen atmosphere. Ferroelectric and resistive switching properties of ZNFO thin films are observed.