Conversion between digital and analog resistive switching behaviors and logic display application of photoresponsive ZnO nanorods-based memristor

Abstract

Memristors have shown great application prospects in next-generation non-volatile memory (NVMs) and brain-inspired computing systems, but various application prospects have different requirements for device performance. Currently, it is difficult to precisely regulate the conversion of memristive effects between analog and digital due to the complex resistive switching mechanism. In this work, size-controlled ZnO nanorods was achieved by adjusting the concentration of the surfactant polyethyleneimine (PEI), and further research was conducted for the memristive effect of the as-prepared memristors based on ZnO nanorods with different sizes. The results showed that PEI accelerates the protonation process, leading to the increase of OH– ions, which further leads to the transition of the memristive effect of the as-prepared device from digital to analog as the PEI concentration increases. Moreover, the optical controlled logic display function was achieved in the memristor based on the light-sensitive properties of the ZnO nanorods. Therefore, this work lays the foundation that the memristor with analog and digital memristive effect can control and enrich the application prospects of memristor.