Investigation of Electron Transport Layer Influence on Asymmetric Bipolar Switching in Transparent BST-Based RRAM Devices

Ba0.6Sr0.4TiO3 (BST) thin films were deposited on ITO substrates via rf magnetron sputtering, followed by structural and morphological characterization using XRD and FE-SEM. Metal–insulator–metal (MIM) RRAM devices were fabricated by depositing Al top electrodes, and their electrical properties were examined through I–V measurements. The optimized BST films deposited at 40% oxygen concentration exhibited stable resistive switching, with an operating voltage of 3 V, an on/off ratio of 1, and a leakage current of 10−8 A. After rapid thermal annealing at 500 °C, the on/off ratio improved to 2 but leakage increased to 10−3 A. Incorporating an electron transport layer (ETL) effectively suppressed the leakage current to 10−5 A while maintaining the on/off ratio at 2. Moreover, a transition from bipolar to unipolar switching was observed at higher oxygen concentration (60%). These results highlight the role of ETLs in reducing leakage and stabilizing switching characteristics, providing guidance for the development of transparent, low-power, and high-reliability BST-based RRAM devices. This study aims to investigate the role of Ba0.6Sr0.4TiO3 (BST) ferroelectric oxide as a functional switching layer in resistive random-access memory (RRAM) and to evaluate how interface engineering using an electron transport layer (ETL) can improve resistive switching stability, leakage suppression, and device reliability.