Valence Change Bipolar Resistive Switching Accompanied With Magnetization Switching in CoFe₂O₄ Thin Film

Resistive Switching in oxides has offered new opportunities for developing resistive random access memory (ReRAM) devices. Here we demonstrated bipolar Resistive Switching along with magnetization switching of cobalt ferrite (CFO) thin film using Al/CFO/FTO sandwich structure, which makes it a potential candidate for developing future multifunctional memory devices. The device shows good retention characteristic time (>10⁴ seconds) and endurance performance, a good resistance ratio of high resistance state (HRS) and low resistance state (LRS) ~10³. Nearly constant resistance values in LRS and HRS confirm the stability and non-volatile nature of the device. The device shows different conduction mechanisms in the HRS and LRS i.e. Schottky, Poole Frenkel and Ohmic. Magnetization of the device is also modulated by applied electric field which has been attributed to the oxygen vacancies formed/annihilated during the voltage sweep and indicates the presence of valence change mechanism (VCM) in our device. It is suggested that push/pull of oxygen ions from oxygen diffusion layer during voltage sweep is responsible for forming/rupture of oxygen vacancies conducting channels, leading to switching between LRS and HRS and for switching in magnetization in CFO thin film. Presence of VCM in our device was confirmed by X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy at Al/CFO interface.