Atomically-thin Femtojoule Filamentary Memristor

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a memristor with sub-nanometer filamentary switching using atomically-thin boron nitride, achieving femtojoule energy consumption and ultra-low current, advancing ultra-low power electronics.

Contribution

It introduces a novel memristive device with atomically-thin switching medium enabling femtojoule energy efficiency and distinct atomic-scale filament formation.

Findings

Sub-nanometer filamentary switching achieved

Operation current below picoampere levels

Energy consumption in the femtojoule range

Abstract

The morphology and dimension of the conductive filament formed in a memristive device are strongly influenced by the thickness of its switching medium layer. Aggressive scaling of this active layer thickness is critical towards reducing the operating current, voltage and energy consumption in filamentary type memristors. Previously, the thickness of this filament layer has been limited to above a few nanometers due to processing constraints, making it challenging to further suppress the on-state current and the switching voltage. Here, we study the formation of conductive filaments in a material medium with sub-nanometer thickness, formed through the oxidation of atomically-thin two-dimensional boron nitride. The resulting memristive device exhibits sub-nanometer filamentary switching with sub-pA operation current and femtojoule per bit energy consumption. Furthermore, by confining the filament to the atomic scale, we observe current switching characteristics that are distinct from that in thicker medium due to the profoundly different atomic kinetics. The filament morphology in such an aggressively scaled memristive device is also theoretically explored. These ultra-low energy devices are promising for realizing femtojoule and sub-femtojoule electronic computation, which can be attractive for applications in a wide range of electronics systems that desire ultra-low power operation.