Effect of Ag doping on hydrothermally grown ZnO thin-film electronic synapse device

The present paper reports the effect of silver (Ag) doping on hydrothermally grown zinc oxide (ZnO) thin-film memristor-based electronic synapse devices. The morphological, structural and electrical characterizations of the zinc oxide memristor devices were carried out using scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and a programmable electrochemical workstation, respectively. The crystallographic orientation was detected along the (002) plane with well-aligned and compact zinc oxide nanorods for silver-doped zinc oxide memristor devices. An analog memory with a synaptic weight behavior similar to that of a biological synapse was observed for the developed devices. The morphological, structural, electrical and resistive switching mechanism studies clearly show improved performance of silver-doped zinc oxide devices over that of the bare zinc oxide device. Furthermore, the conduction mechanism of the devices follows the ohmic and space-charge-limited conduction theories. The present report is useful for the development and optimization of zinc oxide-based electronic synaptic devices for neuromorphic applications.