Strain-engineered functional oxide heterostructures for thermally enhanced resistive switching

Functional oxide heterostructures offer a versatile platform for next-generation electronics. Here, we report a strain-engineered SmNiO 3 /PMN-PT heterostructure that enables thermally enhanced resistive switching. Epitaxial SmNiO 3 films grown on (001)-oriented PMN-PT ferroelectric substrates via pulsed laser deposition exhibit high crystalline quality and smooth surfaces. Using electrostrain generated from the piezoelectric substrate, we achieve volatile resistance modulation of 5.4% under ± 12 kV/cm at room temperature, and a nonvolatile switching of 3.2% that is consistent with 109° ferroelastic domain switching. Moderate heating (70 °C) boosts the volatile modulation to 9.4% under the same field; at 90 °C, only 4 kV/cm yields a 5.7% change, demonstrating high low-field efficiency. These results suggest a clear strain-property relationship and demonstrate that the heterostructure integrates both volatile dynamic tuning and nonvolatile memory states. This work positions the SmNiO 3 /PMN-PT heterostructure as a promising functional material for further exploration in neuromorphic applications.