Observation of rebirth of metallic paths during resistance switching of metal nanowire

摘要

To clarify the mechanism of resistance-switching phenomena, we have investigated the change in the electronic structure of a Ni nanowire device during resistance-switching operations using scanning photoelectron microscopy techniques. We directly observed the disappearance of density of state (DOS) at the Fermi level (EF) in a high-resistance state and recovery of a finite DOS at EF in a low-resistance state. These results are direct evidence that the Ni nanowire is fully oxidized after switching to the high-resistance state and that Ni-metal conductive paths in the oxidized nanowire are recovered in the low-resistance state.