Memristive switching phenomena in a single oxide nanowire

Electrically driven resistive switching (RS) in metal/oxide/metal junctions, so-called ReRAM and/or Memristor, has attracted much attention due to the potential applications toward next-generation nonvolatile memory devices. However the lack of nanoscale RS mechanism has been held back the range of practical applications. Here we demonstrate the nonvolatile RS in a single oxide nanowire (CoO_x, NiO_x, TiO₂) with 10 nm scale and the experimentally revealed nanoscale RS mechanism. The approach using oxide nanowire offers a platform not only to investigate the intrinsic characteristics of RS but also to tailor the RS properties for next-generation memory devices.