Realization of resistive and magnetization switching in sol-gel derived yttrium iron garnet thin films

•Yttrium iron garnet thin films were synthesized by sol-gel method.•Resistive switching and magnetization variation of the film device were studied.•Carrier transport mechanism follows schottky emission at high resistance state.•~46% saturation magnetization change could be realized via tuning electric field.•Resistive switching is related to oxygen vacancy and valence change (Fe2+/Fe3+). In this work, large-area ferrite thin films of ferromagnetic yttrium iron garnet (Y3Fe5O12, YIG) were synthesized on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si (Pt) substrates by a sol-gel method to investigate the resistive and magnetization switching properties. The synthesized YIG thin films acquire a single garnet structure. The Pt/YIG/Pt stack illustrates unipolar resistive switching behavior with excellent switching uniformity, large memory window (102), stable cycle-to-cycle endurance, and good data storage retention (104 s). The ~46% saturation magnetization variation could be realized via the conversion between high and low resistance states by manipulating the electric field. Schottky emission is governed in the high-field region for the high resistance state. Temperature dependence of resistance and magnetization variation confirms that oxygen vacancies conductive filament model and valence state change (Fe2+ and Fe3+) are responsible for the resistive and magnetization switching mechanisms. These results indicate that YIG ferrite based stack is suitable to design the electro-magnetic coupling multifunctional nonvolatile memory devices.