A Facile Hydrothermal Synthesis and Resistive Switching Behavior of α-Fe₂O₃ Nanowire Arrays

A facile hydrothermal process has been developed to synthesize the α-Fe₂O₃ nanowire arrays with a preferential growth orientation along the [110] direction. The W/α-Fe₂O₃/FTO memory device with the nonvolatile resistive switching behavior has been achieved. The resistance ratio (R_HRS/R_LRS) of the W/α-Fe₂O₃/FTO memory device exceeds two orders of magnitude, which can be preserved for more than 10³s without obvious decline. Furthermore, the carrier transport properties of the W/α-Fe₂O₃/FTO memory device are dominated by the Ohmic conduction mechanism in the low resistance state and trap-controlled space-charge-limited current conduction mechanism in the high resistance state, respectively. The partial formation and rupture of conducting nanofilaments modified by the intrinsic oxygen vacancies have been suggested to be responsible for the nonvolatile resistive switching behavior of the W/α-Fe₂O₃/FTO memory device. This work suggests that the as-prepared α-Fe₂O₃ nanowire-based W/α-Fe₂O₃/FTO memory device may be a potential candidate for applications in the next-generation nonvolatile memory devices.