Realizing a family of transition-metal-oxide memristors based on volatile resistive switching at a rectifying metal/oxide interface

There is strong interest in creating new memristors due to their significant impact in many fields including digital information systems, analogue circuits and artificial neural networks as a new class of fundamental electronic elements. Here we report a volatile resistive switching effect at a prototypical Schottky metal/oxide interface and realize a family of transition-metal-oxide memristors showing distinct hysteresis characteristics based on the interface. The results not only provide further understanding on the electrical behaviour of metal/oxide interfaces but also indicate the key role of metal/oxide interfaces as basic building blocks in transition-metal–oxide memristors.