Generally, a memristor is composed of a metal-insulator-metal (MIM) cell, where the NVM effect comes from their ability of reversible resistive switching (RS) between low-resistance state (LRS or RON) and high-resistance state (HRS or ROFF) under

voltage stimulus. Among the various candidate materials for RRAM and memristor, zinc oxide (ZnO) has promising advantages, such as facile synthesis, reversible and steady RS property, and low set and reset voltages [3–5]. Up to now, memristors based on ZnO thin films have been reported according to their RS behaviors from intrinsic defects (e.g., oxygen vacancies) and extrinsic impurities (e.g., Ag+ ions) [6–8]. However, several serious problems for memristors still exist. First of all, the RS mechanisms are still subjects of heated debate. Second, the operating voltages are usually too large and expected to be less than 1 V. Finally, the RS behavior in a single ZnO microwire has seldom been reported, but find more could have special applications due to its one-dimensional structure which include memristors, nanolasers, photodiodes, nanogenerators, gas sensors, acoustic resonators, piezoelectric

gated diodes, etc. [5, 9]. In this paper, we report on a ZnO single-wire memristor with low driving voltage and high stability as well as its interesting RS behaviors. Well unipolar RS properties were observed, including the set and reset voltages less than 1 V, resistance ratio as high as 103, and strong endurance stability within Cell press 100 cycles. Abnormally, the reset voltages are observed to be larger than the set voltages, which are contrary to most previous reports and are explained by the space-charge-limited selleck products current (SCLC). Methods ZnO microwires were synthesized in a horizontal quartz tube furnace (6 cm in diameter and 60 cm in length) by a vapor-phase transport method as reported elsewhere [5, 10]. An individual ZnO microwire was put on a glass substrate. Two drops of silver paste

were coated on the two ends with a spacing of about 1 mm. After being baked at 120°C for 10 min, the silver paste became solid, forming the memristor devices as presented by the schematic diagram in the lower inset of Figure 1a. The material and device morphology was examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The current-voltage (I-V) and endurance characteristics of the device were measured by a Keithley 2635 source meter (Keithley Instruments, Inc., Cleveland, OH, USA) and a probe station at room temperature in a voltage sweep mode. Each voltage sweep (50 points, 100 ms/point) began from 0 V, and the bias (1 V) was applied to one of the Ag electrode while the other was grounded. The maximum current was limited by a compliance current (CC) to avoid a permanent hard breakdown when unipolar HRS switched to LRS. Figure 1 SEM image and unipolar RS behaviors of ZnO microwire and distribution of set and reset voltages. (a) SEM image of an individual ZnO microwire.