Resistive Switching and Current Conduction Mechanisms in Hexagonal Boron Nitride Threshold Memristors with Nickel Electrodes

Abstract

The 2D insulating material hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) has attracted much attention as the active medium in memristive devices due to its favorable physical properties, among others, a wide bandgap that enables a large switching window. Metal filament formation is frequently suggested for h-BN devices as the resistive switching (RS) mechanism, usually supported by highly specialized methods like conductive atomic force microscopy (C-AFM) or transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Here, the switching of multilayer hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) threshold memristors with two nickel (Ni) electrodes is investigated through their current conduction mechanisms. Both the high and the low resistance states are analyzed through temperature-dependent current–voltage measurements. The formation and retraction of nickel filaments along boron defects in the h-BN film as the resistive switching mechanism is proposed. The electrical data are corroborated with TEM analyses to establish temperature-dependent current–voltage measurements as a valuable tool for the analysis of resistive switching phenomena in memristors made of 2D materials. The memristors exhibit a wide and tunable current operation range and low stand-by currents, in line with the state of the art in h-BN-based threshold switches, a low cycle-to-cycle variability of 5%, and a large On/Off ratio of 107.