Electrical-stress-induced conductivity increase in SrTiO₃ films

The charge transport of polycrystalline SrTiO3 films doped with Cr is investigated by means of temperature- and electric-field-dependent current measurements. In particular, the effect of electrical stress on the conduction mechanism is analyzed to understand the forming process of samples exhibiting resistance-switching phenomena. The temperature dependence of the conductivity can be described with the variable-range hopping model. The electrical-stress- induced conductivity increase of SrTiO3 films is accompanied by a change of the temperature dependence corresponding to a significant increase of the density of localized states. © 2006 American Institute of Physics.