Temperature dependent resistive switching behavior of a pectin based heterostructure

Organic material-based optoelectronic and electronic devices have recently received a lot of attention due to their simple device structure, preferred scalability, low cost, low power consumption etc. Resistive random-access memory (RRAM) works on the principle of resistive switching which has potential for application in memory storage and neuromorphic computing [1, 2, 3]. Here, natural orange peel was used to extract biocompatible pectin to design a resistive switching memory device of the structure Ag/Pectin/Indium tin oxide (ITO) and studied a behaviour between a temperature range of 50K and 300K. The basic principle of Resistive Switching behaviour is based on the formation of a conductive filament. While applying voltage, Ag is broken down by Ag+ ions and at higher temperature Ag ions have enough energy to break out of their lattice sites and move easily towards bottom electrode. But at low temperature, due to lack of sufficient energy, Ag+ ions cannot freely move inside the sample to form a conductive filament-like structure. The microscopic characterisation releaved the texture of the surface and thickness of the layers. From FTIR spectra, we confirmed the presence of C–OH, COOH, OH bonds in pectin. The current-voltage characteristics done over 100 cycles of repeated cycling revealed sustainable resistive switching behaviour with appropriate ON/OFF ratio from endurance plot. The robust switching characteristics suggested the possible use of such devices for bioelectronic memory applications.