Articles you may be interested inResistive switching characteristics of Si3N4-based resistive-switching random-access memory cell with tunnel barrier for high density integration and low-power applications Evolution of RESET current and filament morphology in low-power HfO 2 unipolar resistive switching memory Appl. Phys. Lett. 98, 103511 (2011); 10.1063/1.3565239Pulse-induced low-power resistive switching in Hf O 2 metal-insulator-metal diodes for nonvolatile memory applicationsIn this article, the current conduction and resistive switching (RS) behavior in flexible Sm 2 O 3 and Lu 2 O 3 resistive random access memories (ReRAM) are investigated. Amorphous Sm 2 O 3 and Lu 2 O 3 thin films were deposited at room temperature by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering on flexible polyethylene terephthalate substrate. The structural morphologies of the Sm 2 O 3 and Lu 2 O 3 thin films strongly depend on the lattice energy of the oxides. The dominant current conduction mechanism in the oxide layer changes from electrode control Schottky emission in Sm 2 O 3 to bulk controlled space-charge-limited-current in Lu 2 O 3 . The barrier height extracted from Schottky emission model is 0.96 eV in Sm 2 O 3 thin film, while the activation energy of traps calculated from the Arrhenius plots is about 0.23 eV in Lu 2 O 3 thin film. Additionally, the Ni/Sm 2 O 3 /ITO flexible memory device shows promising RS behavior with very low power of operation ($30 lW) and small distribution of switching parameters. The memory reliability characteristics of switching endurance, data retention, good flexibility, and mechanical endurance show promising for future memory applications. The filament conduction model is adopted to describe the RS behavior in the Sm 2 O 3 and Lu 2 O 3 ReRAM devices. The improved RS performance in Sm 2 O 3 thin film is attributed to the different physical properties of the thin films. V C 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.