Origin of oxygen vacancies in resistive switching memory devices

The resistive switching state in Cr-doped SrTiO3 was induced by applying an electric field. This was done in ambient air and in an atmosphere of H2/Ar. The distribution of the thereby introduced oxygen vacancies was studied by spatially resolved X-ray fluorescence images. It was concluded that the oxygen vacancies were introduced in the interface between the SrTiO3 and the positively biased electrode.