Phase-change materials for volatile threshold resistive switching and neuronal device applications

TL;DR

This review discusses recent progress in phase-change materials exhibiting volatile resistive switching and neuronal oscillations, focusing on their potential for neuromorphic computing and the challenges for practical deployment.

Contribution

It summarizes advances in volatile resistive switching devices and neuronal oscillators based on three key phase-change materials with phase transitions, highlighting their technological potential and challenges.

Findings

VO2 shows fast, low-field volatile switching.

1T-TaS2 exhibits stochastic neuronal oscillations.

BaTiS3 demonstrates emerging phase-change properties.

Abstract

Volatile threshold resistive switching and neuronal oscillations in phase-change materials, specifically those undergoing metal-to-insulator transitions, offer unique attributes such as fast and low-field volatile switching, tunability, and stochastic dynamics. These characteristics are particularly promising for emulating neuronal behaviors and solving complex computational problems. In this review, we summarize recent advances in the development of volatile resistive switching devices and neuronal oscillators based on three representative materials with coincident electronic and structural phase transitions, at different levels of technological readiness: the well-studied correlated oxide VO2, the charge-density-wave transition metal dichalcogenide 1T-TaS2, and the emerging phase-change chalcogenide perovskite BaTiS3. We discuss progresses from the perspective of materials development and device implementation. Finally, we emphasize the major challenges that must be addressed for practical applications of these phase-change materials and provide our outlook on the future research directions in this rapidly evolving field.