Resistive Switching in Individual Ferromagnetic Filaments in ZrO2(Y)/Ni Based Memristive Stacks

The resistive switching effect in individual ferromagnetic filaments in memristive stacks based on ZrO 2 (Y)/Ni functional layers was studied experimentally. A conductive probe of an atomic force microscope played a role of a movable top electrode of a virtual memristive stack. The features of bipolar-type resistive switching found were related to the rapture and restoring of the filaments containing Ni atoms in the ZrO 2 (Y) dielectric films and are probably caused by different degree of metallization of the filaments. The filaments fromed were manifested in the images obtained by magnetic force microscopy as single-domain ferromagnetic particles.