  We have studied the effects of accumulating cyclic electrical pulses of
increasing amplitude on the non-volatile resistance state of interfaces made by
sputtering a metal (Au, Pt) on top of the surface of a cuprate superconductor
YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{7-\delta}$ (YBCO). We have analyzed the influence of the
number of applied pulses $N$ on the relative amplitude of the remnant
resistance change between the high ($R_H$) and the low ($R_L$) state
[$\alpha=(R_{H}-R_{L})/R_{L}$] at different temperatures ($T$). We show that
the critical voltage ($V_c$) needed to produce a resistive switching (RS, i.e.
$\alpha >0$) decreases with increasing $N$ or $T$. We also find a power law
relation between the voltage of the pulses and the number of pulses
$N_{\alpha_0}$ required to produce a RS of $\alpha=\alpha_0$. This relation
remains very similar to the Basquin equation used to describe the
stress-fatigue lifetime curves in mechanical tests. This points out to the
similarity between the physics of the RS, associated with the diffusion of
oxygen vacancies induced by electrical pulses, and the propagation of defects
in materials subjected to repeated mechanical stress.
