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Vacancy breathing by grain boundaries—a mechanism of memristive switching in polycrystalline oxides

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 September 2013

Xiao Shen ,
Yevgeniy S. Puzyrev  and
Sokrates T. Pantelides
Xiao Shen*
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, 37235
Yevgeniy S. Puzyrev
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, 37235
Sokrates T. Pantelides
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, 37235; Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, 37831; Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, 37235
*
*Address all correspondence to Xiao Shen at xiao.shen@vanderbilt.edu
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Abstract

It is widely believed that switching to the conductive state in memristive materials is triggered by the external field that drives defect dynamics. In polycrystalline materials, grain boundaries are further believed to cause switching by enabling faster defect motion. Here, we report a first-principle study of oxygen vacancy dynamics at a grain boundary (GB) in polycrystalline ZnO and show that switching to the conductive state is triggered by a recombination-enhanced motion of vacancies perpendicular to the GB. We call this mechanism the “breathing” trigger of memristive switching.

Type
Research Letters
Information
MRS Communications , Volume 3 , Issue 3 , September 2013 , pp. 167 - 170
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2013 

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