Multifunctional zinc oxide nano-structure-based circuit building blocks for re-configurable electronics and optoelectronics

1. Integrated device components, comprising a vertically integrated reconfigurable and programmable diode/memory resistor (1D1R) structure built on a substrate, wherein 1D is a MgxZn1-xO Schottky diode, for which 0≦x≦0.06, and 1R is a transition metal-doped ZnO unipolar resistive switching device comprising a first metal electrode deposited on the substrate, a transition metal-doped ZnO ternary compound and nanostructured thin film grown on the first metal electrode, and a second metal electrode deposited on the nanostructured thin film.

2. A vertically integrated diode/memory resistor (1D1R) device component, comprising:

(a) a substrate;

(b) a unipolar resistive switching device comprising a nanostructured thin film disposed between first and second metal electrodes, said nanostructured thin film comprising a transition metal doped ZnO ternary compound, wherein said first metal electrode is disposed on the substrate; and

(c) a Schottky diode disposed on the resistive switching device comprising:

(i) a nanostructured Mg x Zn 1-x O thin film disposed on the second metal electrode of said resistive switching device, wherein 0≦x≦0.06; and

(ii) a third metal electrode disposed on the diode thin film.

3. The device component of claim 2 , wherein said nanostructured thin film of said switching device comprising a transition metal doped ZnO ternary compound is a dual layer structure consisting of a Fe doped ZnO layer greater than ten urn thickness and a second oxide layer less than ten nm thickness comprising one or more oxides selected from the group consisting of MgO, Al 2 O 3 , HfO 2 , Ta 2 O 5 , NiO, TiO 2 , SiO 2 , Nb 2 O 5 , ZrO 2 , CoO, SnO 2 , Ga 2 O 3 and SrTiO 3 .

4. The device component of claim 3 , wherein said second oxide layer consists essentially of MgO.

5. The device component of claim 2 , wherein the first metal electrode comprises Pt and the second metal electrode comprises Au.

6. The device component of claim 2 , wherein the nanostructured ZnO film of said diode comprises a multilayer structure, consisting of a doped n-type (n + ) ZnO layer contacting the second metal electrode and said Mg x Zn 1-x O semiconductor layer contacting the third metal electrode to form the Schottky contact.

7. The device component of claim 6 , wherein the doped n-type (n + ) ZnO layer comprises Ga-doped ZnO (GZO), Al-doped ZnO (AZO) or In-doped ZnO (IZO) layers.

8. The device component of claim 2 , wherein the third metal electrode is silver.

9. The device component of claim 2 , wherein the substrate is selected from the group consisting of glass, flexible polymers, silicon (Si), silicon dioxide (SiO 2 ) covered Si (Si/SiO 2 ), and complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) wafer.

10. An integrated circuit comprising a crossbar array for switching matrices comprising the vertically integrated 1D1R structure of claim 2 .