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A mechanism of effect of optical excitation on resistive switching of dielectric films with embedded metal nanoparticles (MNPs) has been proposed. The mechanism is related to a charging of the MNPs due to internal photoemission of electrons from the MNPs, which results in an increasing of the electric field strength at the MNP surfaces that, in turn, promotes the rupture and restoring of the conductive filaments in the dielectric film. The increasing of the electric filed strength due to the MNP charging as a function of the MNP sizes and positions inside the dielectric films was evaluated using a simple model taking into account the mirror charges on the conductive electrodes of a memristor stack. The single electron charging was found to be essential at small MNP radii (∼1 nm). The proposed mechanism was confirmed experimentally by studying the photoexcitation-induced charging of Au MNPs (with average radius 1.6–1.8 nm) embedded into a 10 nm thick ZrO2(Y) film by Kelvin probe force microscopy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The time dynamics of the spatial distribution of electrons locally injected from the probe of an atomic force microscope into thin (less than 10 nm) ZrO2(Y) films with embedded Au nanoparticles on Si substrates is studied via Kelvin probe force microscopy. The profiles of the film surface potential induced by the injection of a countable number (several tens) of electrons into Au nanoparticles, as a function of the time elapsed after injection, are measured and analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract—: The effect of optical illumination on the resistive switching in ultrathin (~4 nm) ZrO2(Y) films with embedded single-layer Au nanoparticle arrays 2-3 nm in size is studied via tunneling atomic force microscopy. The ZrO2(Y) films with Au nanoparticles are grown by layerwise magnetron deposition onto glass substrates with a conductive indium-tin-oxide sublayer, followed by annealing at 450°C. An increase in hysteresis due to bipolar resistive switching in the ZrO2(Y) films is observed on the cyclic current-voltage curves of the microscope probe-to-sample contact. The effect is found to manifest itself in a dense Au nanoparticle array (~660 nm) when the contact area is photoexcited through a transparent substrate exposed to the radiation of a semiconductor laser at the plasmon-resonance wavelength. The effect is attributed to the photon-assisted field emission of electrons from Au nanoparticles to the conduction band of ZrO2(Y) in a strong electric field between the microscope probe and the indium-tin-oxide substrate under plasmon-resonance conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]