An yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) (similar to 10 nm) layer was designed and introduced by a pulse laser deposition method before a Pr0.7Ca0.3MnO3 (PCMO) film was deposited on the W bottom electrode (BE) with a sub-micron via-hole structure. Comparing Pt/PCMO/W structures with those of Pt/PCMO/YSZ/W, we found that the inserted YSZ layer between the PCMO film and the W BE improves the resistive switching (RS) properties. The Pt/PCMO/YSZ/W structure shows a large R-HRS/R-LRS ratio (similar to 10(4)), low power consumption (<4 mu mW), good dc endurance (>100 cycles), and long retention (>10(5) s). This improvement of RS properties may be mainly attributed to the modulation of tunneling barrier YSZ layer along with oxygen ions migration between PCMO film and W BE across YSZ layer. In addition, the results of pulse measurements also show an improvement of RS properties in Pt/PCMO/YSZ/W structures. (C) 2011 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.