Resistive switching in metallic Ag ₂ S memristors due to a local overheating induced phase transition

Resistive switchings in nanometer-scale metallic junctions formed between an inert metallic tip and an Ag film covered by a thin Ag2S layer are investigated as a function of temperature at different biasing conditions. The observed switching threshold voltages along with the ON and OFF state resistances are quantitatively understood by taking the local overheating of the junction volume and the resulting structural phase transition of the Ag2S matrix into account. Our results demonstrate that the essential characteristics of the resistive switching in Ag2S based nanojunctions can be routinely optimized by suitable sample preparation and biasing schemes.