A study on the memristive properties of lanthanum nickel oxide bilayers in the front cover of "Journal of Materials Chemistry A"

A research on the electrical transport properties of La₂NiO₄/LaNiO₃ bilayers conducted by LMGP and ICN2 and published in Journal of Materials Chemistry A has been featured on the front cover of the journal. The study reveals the optimal film growth conditions of La₂NiO₄ and LaNiO₃ epitaxial bilayers obtained by pulsed laser deposition to exhibit memristive behaviour at the interface between the oxygen ionic and the electronic conducting layers. Depending on the film microstructure and under an applied external voltage, the oxygen interstitials present in overstoichiometric La₂NiO_4+d reversibly drift towards (or from) the interface with LaNiO₃ accumulating at (or depleting from) the interface. Therefore, the characteristics of the interfacial electrical barrier can be modulated for the device to show enhanced memristive properties. This work draws the attention to mobile interstitial oxygen defects as an additional ingredient in valence change memory devices, typically based on mobile oxygen vacancies.

This work was coordinated by Oxides for Nanoionic Devices group leader Dr. Monica Burriel from LMGP (CNRS, Grenoble-INP) and by Nanomaterials group leader Dr. José Santiso from ICN2 (Barcelona, Spain). The art work on this cover is by Damaso Torres (ICN2).