Molecular dynamics simulations of oxide memristors: thermal effects

TL;DR

This study uses molecular dynamics simulations to explore how thermal inhomogeneities influence the formation and destruction of conductive channels in oxide memristors, revealing a competition between ionic interactions and temperature effects that impacts device performance.

Contribution

The paper introduces a simulation approach that incorporates thermal effects into the modeling of oxide memristors, highlighting their role in device behavior.

Findings

Thermal inhomogeneities significantly affect oxygen vacancy dynamics.

A competition exists between ionic attraction and temperature in channel formation.

Thermal effects can alter memristor switching performance.

Abstract

We have extended our recent molecular-dynamic simulations of memristors to include the effect of thermal inhomogeneities on mobile ionic species appearing during operation of the device. Simulations show a competition between an attractive short-ranged interaction between oxygen vacancies and an enhanced local temperature in creating/destroying the conducting oxygen channels. Such a competition would strongly affect the performance of the memristive devices.