We built and measured the dynamical current versus time behavior of nanoscale niobium oxide crosspoint devices which exhibited threshold switching (current-controlled negative differential ...resistance). The switching speeds of 110 × 110 nm(2) devices were found to be Δt(ON) = 700 ps and Δt(OFF) = 2:3 ns while the switching energies were of the order of 100 fJ. We derived a new dynamical model based on the Joule heating rate of a thermally driven insulator-to-metal phase transition that accurately reproduced the experimental results, and employed the model to estimate the switching time and energy scaling behavior of such devices down to the 10 nm scale. These results indicate that threshold switches could be of practical interest in hybrid CMOS nanoelectronic circuits.
The Hodgkin-Huxley model for action potential generation in biological axons is central for understanding the computational capability of the nervous system and emulating its functionality. Owing to ...the historical success of silicon complementary metal-oxide-semiconductors, spike-based computing is primarily confined to software simulations and specialized analogue metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor circuits. However, there is interest in constructing physical systems that emulate biological functionality more directly, with the goal of improving efficiency and scale. The neuristor was proposed as an electronic device with properties similar to the Hodgkin-Huxley axon, but previous implementations were not scalable. Here we demonstrate a neuristor built using two nanoscale Mott memristors, dynamical devices that exhibit transient memory and negative differential resistance arising from an insulating-to-conducting phase transition driven by Joule heating. This neuristor exhibits the important neural functions of all-or-nothing spiking with signal gain and diverse periodic spiking, using materials and structures that are amenable to extremely high-density integration with or without silicon transistors.
Joule‐heating induced conductance‐switching is studied in VO2, a Mott insulator. Complementary in situ techniques including optical characterization, blackbody microscopy, scanning transmission X‐ray ...microscopy (STXM) and numerical simulations are used. Abrupt redistribution in local temperature is shown to occur upon conductance‐switching along with a structural phase transition, at the same current.
Nanoscale metal/oxide/metal switches have the potential to transform the market for nonvolatile memory and could lead to novel forms of computing. However, progress has been delayed by difficulties ...in understanding and controlling the coupled electronic and ionic phenomena that dominate the behaviour of nanoscale oxide devices. An analytic theory of the 'memristor' (memory-resistor) was first developed from fundamental symmetry arguments in 1971, and we recently showed that memristor behaviour can naturally explain such coupled electron-ion dynamics. Here we provide experimental evidence to support this general model of memristive electrical switching in oxide systems. We have built micro- and nanoscale TiO2 junction devices with platinum electrodes that exhibit fast bipolar nonvolatile switching. We demonstrate that switching involves changes to the electronic barrier at the Pt/TiO2 interface due to the drift of positively charged oxygen vacancies under an applied electric field. Vacancy drift towards the interface creates conducting channels that shunt, or short-circuit, the electronic barrier to switch ON. The drift of vacancies away from the interface annilihilates such channels, recovering the electronic barrier to switch OFF. Using this model we have built TiO2 crosspoints with engineered oxygen vacancy profiles that predictively control the switching polarity and conductance.
A key requirement for using memristors in circuits is a predictive model for device behavior that can be used in simulations and to guide designs. We analyze one of the most promising materials, ...tantalum oxide, for high density, low power, and high-speed memory. We perform an ensemble of measurements, including time dynamics across nine decades, to deduce the underlying state equations describing the switching in Pt/TaO x /Ta memristors. A predictive, compact model is found in good agreement with the measured data. The resulting model, compatible with SPICE, is then used to understand trends in terms of switching times and energy consumption, which in turn are important for choosing device operating points and handling interactions with other circuit elements.
Metal and semiconductor oxides are ubiquitous electronic materials. Normally insulating, oxides can change behavior under high electric fields--through 'electroforming' or 'breakdown'--critically ...affecting CMOS (complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor) logic, DRAM (dynamic random access memory) and flash memory, and tunnel barrier oxides. An initial irreversible electroforming process has been invariably required for obtaining metal oxide resistance switches, which may open urgently needed new avenues for advanced computer memory and logic circuits including ultra-dense non-volatile random access memory (NVRAM) and adaptive neuromorphic logic circuits. This electrical switching arises from the coupled motion of electrons and ions within the oxide material, as one of the first recognized examples of a memristor (memory-resistor) device, the fourth fundamental passive circuit element originally predicted in 1971 by Chua. A lack of device repeatability has limited technological implementation of oxide switches, however. Here we explain the nature of the oxide electroforming as an electro-reduction and vacancy creation process caused by high electric fields and enhanced by electrical Joule heating with direct experimental evidence. Oxygen vacancies are created and drift towards the cathode, forming localized conducting channels in the oxide. Simultaneously, O(2-) ions drift towards the anode where they evolve O(2) gas, causing physical deformation of the junction. The problematic gas eruption and physical deformation are mitigated by shrinking to the nanoscale and controlling the electroforming voltage polarity. Better yet, electroforming problems can be largely eliminated by engineering the device structure to remove 'bulk' oxide effects in favor of interface-controlled electronic switching.
The popular dual electronic and structural transitions in VO2 are explored using X‐ray absorption spectromicroscopy with high spatial and spectral resolutions. It is found that during both heating ...and cooling, the electronic transition always precedes the structural Peierls transition. Between the two transitions, there are intermediate states that are spectrally isolated here.
Titanium dioxide memristive devices have been non‐destructively characterized using x‐ray absorption spectromicroscopy and TEM. These techniques allow direct identification of the chemistry and ...structure of the conducting channel responsible for the bipolar resistance switching seen in these devices. Within the TiO2 matrix, we observe the formation of a Ti4O7 Magnéli phase possessing metallic properties and ordered planes of oxygen vacancies.
We experimentally demonstrate and present an analytical model for a nanoscale metal/oxide/metal device that simultaneously exhibits memristance, based on oxygen vacancy drift, and current‐controlled ...negative differential resistance, based on a metal‐insulator transition instability. We show that this oxide nanodevice can be used to fabricate a continuously tunable voltage‐controlled oscillator.
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