In this paper, the correlation between the crystallinity of reactively sputtered Nb2O5 layers on Pt bottom electrode and their resistive switching behavior was investigated. It was found that the amorphous phase can transformed to an orthorhombic phase by annealing in argon at 650 degrees C. Smooth surfaces of the crystalline samples with RMS roughness of 1 nm were produced. By using the stack Al/Nb2O5/Pt a Schottky diode was produced and a barrier height of 1.0 eV for the argon annealed sample was found. For the amorphous sample, a Frenkel-Poole emission mechanism was found with the activation energy of 0.21 eV. After an electric forming process a filamentary resistive switching was observed for both types of samples. (c) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.