Nonlinear current-voltage behavior of the isolated resistive switching filamentary channels in CuC nanolayer

Copper-doped amorphous carbon film was prepared by radio frequency reactive magnetron sputtering and their resistive switching behaviors were studied under a conductive atomic force microscope (cAFM). The repetitive scanning over the same area using cAFM with various bias voltages revealed that most of the isolated conductive paths were involved in resistive switching with asymmetric nonlinear I-V characteristics. The observed I-V behavior of nanoscale filamentary channels indicates that electron transfer mechanism of resistive switching filamentary channel in Pt/CuC/Pt is a tunneling between Cu filamentary channel and electrode through the solid electrolyte rather than conduction through fully connected Cu filamentary channel.