High‐Reliability Sol‐Gel‐Derived Barium Zirconate ECM Memristor With Large Memory Window and Ultrafast Write/Erase Speeds

This study reports on the fabrication and characterization of high‐performance Ag/BZO/n + ‐Si resistive random‐access memory devices. By precisely controlling the Ba/Zr stoichiometry in the sol‐gel‐derived BZO films, the results demonstrate that near‐unity stoichiometry is essential for stabilizing resistive switching behaviors. While off‐stoichiometric films suffer from unstable filament rupture, the optimized devices exhibit a large memory window of 10 6 , reliable endurance exceeding 10 3 cycles, and robust high‐temperature retention of over 10 4 s at 85°C. Notably, the devices achieve ultrafast switching speeds with write and erase times of 30 and 100 ns, respectively. The physical mechanism underlying the impact of Ba/Zr stoichiometry on memory performance is proposed. The carrier conduction is dominated by shallow‐ and deep‐level trap‐controlled space‐charge‐limited conduction (SCLC), as elucidated by energy band analysis. This work highlights the potential of stoichiometric sol‐gel BZO films for next‐generation high‐speed and nonvolatile memory applications.