Josephson-like Colossal Resistive Switching in Nanocrystalline Y-Ba-Cu-O at Room Temperature

TL;DR

This study reports the observation of Josephson-like colossal resistive switching in nanocrystalline YBCO samples at room temperature, with hysteresis and high resistivity, suggesting potential superconducting components influencing the behavior.

Contribution

First demonstration of Josephson-like hysteresis in colossal resistive switching materials at room temperature in nanocrystalline YBCO.

Findings

Josephson-like hysteresis observed at room temperature

Resistivity is three orders of magnitude higher than standard YBCO

Possible superconducting component responsible for JCRS behavior

Abstract

In this paper, we present data for two nanocrystalline YBa2Cu3O7-x (YBCO) samples which both exhibit Josephson-like Colossal Resistive Switching (JCRS) in voltage-current (V-I) traces from 4.2 K up to room temperature, in magnetic fields up to 8 T. We report Josephson-like hysteresis for both positive and negative current that has not been observed before in colossal resistive switching materials. Non-zero resistance was measured in transport measurements at all temperatures. At low temperatures (< 90 K), we also observed the usual properties for YBCO including weak superconducting and paramagnetic behavior, measured using ac susceptibility and magnetization measurements. The resistivity of these nanocrystalline samples is 3 orders of magnitude higher than standard polycrystalline materials at 300 K and the temperature dependence semiconductor-like. We cannot rule out the possibility that these materials contain a superconducting component responsible for the JCRS behavior at room temperature.