Lateral photovoltaic effect co-observed with unipolar resistive switching behavior in Cu-doped ZnO film

Unipolar resistive switching (RS) behavior was first observed in Cu-doped ZnO film based on ZnO/SiO2/Si structure, which was a novel phenomenon as memory films grown on Si substrate usually showed a bipolar one. The results demonstrate Cu-doped ZnO a new candidate for memory material. By introducing an external electric-field before the sweeping process, we have verified that the RS behavior was a localized effect. The non-linear I-V character, which suggested a junction of the proposed Cu-doped ZnO/SiO2/Si structure, leads to the lateral photovoltaic effect (LPE) investigation. In photovoltaic mode, which is the simplest configuration, the position sensitivity of lateral photovoltage observed on Cu-doped ZnO film achieves 24.82 mV/mm and the nonlinearity is within 9.95%, indicating that Cu-doped ZnO could serve as a LPE material directly. The dual effects accommodate functions of detector and memristor in the same structure and make Cu-doped ZnO a competitive material for advanced multi-functional device.

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