Functional Materials Letters

Vol. 8, No. 1 (2015) 1550010 (4 pages)

© World Scientific Publishing Company
DOI: 10.1142/S1793604715500101

Resistive switching effect of Ag/MoS2/FTO device

Bai Sun*,†, Wenxi Zhao*,†, Yonghong Liu* and Peng Chen*,‡

*School of Physics Science and Technology
Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, P. R. China
†Institute
for Clean Energy & Advanced Materials (ICEAM)
Southwest University Chongqing 400715, P. R. China
‡
pchen@swu.edu.cn

Received 18 August 2014; Accepted 26 August 2014; Published 22 September 2014

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The electric-pulse-driven resistance change of metal/oxides/metal structure, which is called resistive switching effect, is a fasci-
by UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY on 03/15/15. For personal use only.

nating phenomenon for the development of next generation non-volatile memory. In this work, an outstanding bipolar resistive
switching behavior of Ag/MoS2/fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) device is demonstrated. The device can maintain superior re-
versible stability over 100 cycles with an OFF/ON-state resistance ratio of about 103 at room temperature.

Keywords: MoS2; resistive switching; hydrothermal synthesis; multifunctional materials; memory device.

The resistive switching phenomena at simple metal/oxide/
metal structure have attracted great attention due to the
potential uses in high-density memory devices.1,2 So far, the
resistive switching behavior has been observed in many oxide
materials, including binary transition metal oxides,3,4
perovskite materials,5,6 chalcogenides,7 sulfides,8 amorphous
silicon,9 organic materials10 and ferroelectric materials.11,12
In the past few years, the electronic properties of MoS2
have been investigated extensively. Moreover, MoS2 has a
distinct layered structure, in which each Mo layer is sand-
wiched between two sulfur layers.13 Bulk MoS2 has wide
applications in solid lubricant,14 catalyst15 and energy stor-
age.16 Since the hexagonal layered structure of MoS2 is
similar to that of the graphite,17 mechanical exfoliation has
been successfully applied to isolate monolayer MoS2.18,19
Monolayer MoS2 has also been grown on a Cu substrate.20
The success in isolating monolayer MoS2 renders the fabri-
cation of one-dimensional MoS2 nanostructures.21,22 Unlike
the graphene which is a zero-gap semimetal or bulk MoS2
which is a semiconductor with an indirect gap, the monolayer
MoS2 has been shown to be a semiconductor with a direct
bandgap.23 The direct bandgap character opens the possi-
bility for application of the monolayer MoS2 as transistors.24
Moreover, Xu et al. have reported the resistive switching
memories in MoS2 nanosphere assemblies.25 Therefore,
MoS2 would be a useful material for future nanodevices.
Although there are many works on various applications
and properties of MoS2 in previous reports, the resistive
switching properties of MoS2 film have not been reported
yet. Herein we report a reversible bipolar resistive switching
effect of Ag/MoS2/FTO device.
In this work, MoS2 powder was prepared by a hydrothermal
process. In a typical procedure, 2.5 mmol of Na2MoO4
2H2 O
and 5 mmol of CH4N2S were dissolved in 35 mL of distilled
water, and then 3.5 mL concentrated hydrochloric acid were
added into the reaction solution under violent stirring. The
solution was transferred into a 50 mL Teflon-lined stainless
autoclave and sealed tightly, which was kept at 260 ○ C for
48 h. The resulting products were filtered off, washed with
distilled water and absolute ethanol for several times, and
dried in vacuum at 60 ○ C for 12 h for characterization.
Crystal structure of MoS2 powder was characterized at
room temperature by X-ray diffraction (XRD) with CuKα
radiation. Surface morphologies of MoS2 powder and the
fabricated device were characterized using scanning electron
microscope (SEM). The microstructure of the MoS2 powder
was observed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM)
(JEM-2100).
The preparation process of Ag/MoS2/FTO device is as
follows: (1) FTO substrates were cleaned prior ultrasonic to
use by acetone, ethanol and deionized water. (2) The as-
prepared MoS2 powder was ground for 2 h. (3) The MoS2
powder was dissolved in toluene solution to prepare precur-
sor gel, then spin coated on the FTO substrate, the spin-
coating process was done at 5000 rpm for 10 s and used for
deposition of films. (4) These samples were subsequently

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 B. Sun et al.

dried at 120 ○ C in vacuum for overnight. (5) The Ag elec-
trodes were prepared by vacuum deposition. Finally, the
current–voltage (I–V ) curve was tested using the electro-
chemical workstation (CHI) at room temperature.
SEM image of the as-prepared MoS2 powder is shown
in Fig. 1(a). It is obvious that the MoS2 powder consists
of MoS2 ribbons. The TEM image of MoS2 powder is dis-
played in the inset of Fig. 1(a), in which the MoS2 powder
presents sheet structure. From the high-resolution transmis-
sion electron microscopy (HRTEM) image of MoS2 powder
in Fig. 1(b), we can see that the lattice spacing between
two planes is  0.23 nm, corresponding to the (103) planes
of MoS2. The inset of Fig. 1(b) exhibits the selected area
electron diffraction (SAED) pattern of the MoS2 powder.
Figure 2(a) presents the schematic representation of the
device, where the MoS2 film was spin-coated on the FTO
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The composition of MoS2 film is confirmed by elemental
analysis carried out from energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX)
spectra. The EDX data in Fig. 3(a) confirms that the com-
position of MoS2 film consists only Mo and S without
any other impurities, which indicate that we have not mixed
any impurity element in the preparation process. In addition,
the inset of Fig. 3(a) shows S/Mo atomic ratios obtained
by EDX. The S/Mo atomic ratio is 1.93, which indicates
there is a small amount of S defects for the as-prepared
device.
The crystalline structure of the MoS2 film was charac-
terized by XRD patterns. Figure 3(b) exhibits the XRD of
MoS2 film. We can see there are only the peaks of MoS2,
which further reveals the overall crystallinity and purity of
the as-synthesized device. All peaks can be determined as
hexagonal MoS2 crystal (JCPDS No. 85-1519). Therefore,

substrate. The top SEM image of as-prepared device is shown the film contains only pure MoS2.
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in Fig. 2(b), where the electrodes of Ag with the largest area In the test of resistive switching characteristics of Ag/
of  1 mm2 were deposited onto the surface of MoS2 film. MoS2/FTO device, we employed the experimental test circuit

(a) (b)

Fig. 1. (a) The SEM image of the MoS2 powder; the inset shows TEM morphology of MoS2 powder. (b) The HRTEM image of MoS2 powder; the inset
exhibits SAED pattern of MoS2 powder.

(a) (b)

Fig. 2. (a) The schematic representation of the Ag/MoS2/FTO device. (b) The SEM image of as-prepared device.

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 Resistive switching effect of Ag/MoS2/FTO device

(a) (b)

Fig. 3. (a) The EDX spectrum of as-prepared MoS2 film, the inset shows S/Mo atomic ratios obtained by EDX. (b) The XRD of MoS2 film at room
temperature.
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shown in Fig. 4(a). Figure 4(b) displays the current–voltage device. The arrows in the figure denote the sweeping direc-
(I–V ) curves of Ag/MoS2/FTO device in linear scale, which tion of voltage.
exhibits an asymmetric behavior with significant hysteresis, Figure 4(c) shows a corresponding I–V curve of Ag/
which shows the resistive switching effect of Ag/MoS2/FTO MoS2/FTO device in logarithmic scale. We can see that a

(a) (b)

(c) (d)

Fig. 4. (a) The schematic representation of test circuit. (b) The current–voltage (I–V ) characteristic curve in linear scale of Ag/MoS2/FTO structure. (c) The
corresponding I–V characteristic curves in logarithmic scale. (d) The resistance-cycles curve with a positive bias voltage of 0.2 V.

1550010-3
 B. Sun et al.
sudden current increase occurs at about 0.45 V (VSet ), indi-
cating a resistive switching from the high resistance state
(HRS or \OFF") to the low resistance state (LRS or \ON"),
which was called the \Set" process. When the applied volt-
age sweeps from zero to negative voltage of about 0.45 V
(VReset ), the device can return to the HRS, which was called
the \Reset" process. In addition, it is worth noting that the
threshold voltages in the device are less than 0.5 V, which is
an outstanding advantage for practical memory applications
in an expansive condition.26,27
To estimate the probable practicability of resistive
switching behaviors of the Ag/MoS2/FTO structure device,
the resistance-cycles number curve for the HRS and LRS
with a positive bias of 0.2 V are tested and shown in Fig. 4(d).
It is obvious that the resistances are about 40 KΩ at the
LRS (ON state) and 105 MΩ at the HRS (OFF state). The
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OFF/ON-state resistance ratio is up to  10 3 . The resistances
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of the LRS (ON state) and the HRS (OFF state) are nearly
unchanged after 100 cycles, which shows the good stability
of the white-light controlled resistive switching behaviors
of the Ag/MoS2/FTO device. According to the above results,
the steady resistive switching behavior in Ag/MoS2/FTO
structure provides the potential for non-volatile memory
applications.
The mechanism for resistive switching in a metal/oxides/
oxides structure has been extensively investigated.28–33 In our
works, current–voltage curve of the Ag/MoS2/Ag structure is
symmetrically linear without hysteresis (not shown here),
indicating that there is Ohmic contact between Ag and
MoS2. Therefore, the asymmetric behavior of I–V curve of
Ag/MoS2/FTO indicates that a Schottky barrier is formed at
the interface of MoS2/FTO. The bipolar resistive switching
behavior of Ag/MoS2/FTO resulted from the trapped and
detrapped charge in the Schottky-like depletion layer.31–33
In summary, the reversible bipolar resistive switching
characteristics of Ag/MoS2/FTO device are observed. The
device can maintain superior reversible stability over 100
cycles with an OFF/ON-state resistance ratio of about
103. The superior resistance switching characteristics of the
1550010-4
Ag/MoS2/FTO device hold a great promise for next-gener-
ation non-volatile memory applications.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Nature Science
Foundation of China (Grant No. 51372209).
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