Lead-Free Dual-Phase Halide Perovskites for Preconditioned Conducting-Bridge Memory

Organometallic and all-inorganic halide perovskites (HPs) have recently emerged as promising candidate materials for resistive switching (RS) nonvolatile memory due to their current–voltage hysteresis caused by fast ion migration. Lead-free and all-inorganic HPs have been researched for non-toxic and environmentally friendly RS memory devices. However, only HP-based devices with electrochemically active top electrode (TE) exhibit ultra-low operating voltages and high on/off ratio RS properties. The active TE easily reacts to halide ions in HP films, and the devices have a low device durability. Herein, RS memory devices based on an air-stable lead-free all-inorganic dual-phase HP (AgBi₂I₇-Cs₃Bi₂I₉) are successfully fabricated with inert metal electrodes. The devices with Au TE show filamentary RS behavior by conducting-bridge involving Ag cations in HPs with ultra-low operating voltages (<0.15 V), high on/off ratio (>10⁷), multilevel data storage, and long retention times (>5 × 10⁴ s). The use of a closed-loop pulse switching method improves reversible RS properties up to 10³ cycles with high on/off ratio above 10⁶. With an extremely small bending radius of 1 mm, the devices are operable with reasonable RS characteristics. This work provides a promising material strategy for lead-free all-inorganic HP-based nonvolatile memory devices for practical applications.