Dawit G Ayana
University of Trento, Italy
Title: Sol-gel synthesis of ZnO thin films for memristive application
Biography
Biography: Dawit G Ayana
Abstract
ZnO has gained substantial interest in different research fields due to its appealing properties and wide range of applications. ZnO thin films have been prepared by a variety of techniques. Sol-gel route is widely used and is recognized as a good fabrication technique for synthesis of ZnO thin films. Moreover, it is a good processing to fabricate multi-layer thin films with dense, homogeneous, controlled thickness and stoichiometry. Interestingly, the features of sol-gel derived ZnO thin films can be exploited in order to fulfil the requirements of materials for memristive application. In this work, sol-gel derived multi-layer zinc oxide films were prepared by spin coating technique on different substrates from an alcoholic solution of zinc acetate dihydrate (ZAD) and monoethanolamine (MEA) at different synthetic conditions. The curing and annealing conditions for the ZnO films were adjusted based on the study performed on the ZnO xerogel powders. Structural and morphological features as well as the thermal behaviour of the samples were investigated by complementary techniques including electron microscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy, thermogravimetric and differential thermal analyses, and X-ray diffraction analysis. According to the electrical measurements performed on ZnO thin films sandwiched between Pt/Ti/SiO2 substrate and Ag dishes as a top electrode, the selected fabrication conditions were suitable for fulfilling the requirements of active resistive layers for the development of memristive devices and preliminary memristive responses were acquired. Further study is also on progress toward the the improvement of the memristive switching performance by introduction of dopant.