Electrode-material dependent switching in TaOxmemristors

We have studied the effect of top electrode materials on the switching behavior of TaO x based memristors with an identical switching oxide layer and bottom electrode stack. We found that the virgin resistance, electroforming and switching performance depend heavily on the chemical property of the top electrode materials. In addition, the electrical properties of metal oxides formed with the top electrodes also contribute to the overall memristor performance, including the nonlinearity of the current–voltage relationship. These results provide insights into understanding of memristor behavior as well as approaches for device property engineering.