A crystalline semiconductor Schottky barrier-like diode sandwiched between two conducting electrodes is in series with a memory element, a word line and a bit line, wherein the setup provides voltage margins greater than 1V and current densities greater than 5×106 A/cm2. This Schottky barrier-like diode can be fabricated under conditions compatible with low-temperature BEOL semiconductor processing, can supply high currents at low voltages, exhibits high on-off ratios, and enables large memory arrays.