physica status solidi (a)

Inside Back Cover: Resistive switching and changes in microstructure (Phys. Status Solidi A 2/2011)

The long-known resistive switching (RS) effect in metal–insulator– metal thin film stacks has great potential for resistive memory devices. In contrast to numerous publications on the electric behaviour and many, often detailed, but assumptions-based mechanisms, much less is known about the microstructure and its relation to the observed resistance changes, forming and switching. The Feature Article by Schroeder et al. (pp. 300–316) reports experiments combining electric measurements with microstructure characterization in electron microscopes for both in-situ and ex-situ. The results, mainly on Pt/TiO₂/Pt stacks, indicate heavy damage of the thin film microstructure associated with forming, although these damaged samples still show stable RS. The findings are compared to the scarce microstructure information in the literature which is presented in a short review. It has to be concluded that much more about the microstructure changes related to RS is urgently needed for the RS modelling based on data instead of assumptions.

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