Abstract
Resistive-memory devices promise to revolutionize modern computer architecture eliminating the data-shuttling bottleneck between the memory and processing unit. Recent years have seen a surge of experimental demonstrations of such devices built upon two-dimensional materials based metal–insulator–metal structures. However, the fundamental mechanism of nonvolatile resistive switching has remained elusive. Here, we conduct reactive molecular dynamics simulations for a sulfur vacancy inhabited monolayer molybdenum disulfide-based device with inert electrode systems to gain insight into such phenomena. We observe that with the application of a suitable electric field, at the vacancy positions, the sulfur atom from the other plane pops and gets arrested in the plane of the molybdenum atoms. Rigorous first principles based calculations surprisingly reveal localized metallic states (virtual filament) and stronger chemical bonding for this new atomic arrangement, explaining the nonvolatile resistive switching. We further observe that localized Joule heating plays a crucial role in restoring the popped sulfur atom to its original position. The proposed theory, which delineates both unipolar and bipolar switching, may provide useful guidelines for designing high-performance resistive-memory-based computing architecture.
Highlights
Two terminal nonvolatile resistive-memory (NVRM) devices, known as memristors, are being explored extensively for inmemory computation to overcome the data-shuttling bottleneck between the memory and processing unit in von-Neumann architecture-based modern computers
With the emergence of various twodimensional (2D) materials, the recent past has seen a surge of experimental demonstrations of memristors, where atomically thin layers of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs)[2,3,4,5] or hBN6,7 are used as insulators
We use the ReaxFF potential developed for MoS217, which predicts the structural and mechanical properties, defect dynamics, and phase change of single-layer MoS2 with excellent accuracy[17,18]
Summary
Two terminal nonvolatile resistive-memory (NVRM) devices, known as memristors, are being explored extensively for inmemory computation to overcome the data-shuttling bottleneck between the memory and processing unit in von-Neumann architecture-based modern computers. With the emergence of various twodimensional (2D) materials, the recent past has seen a surge of experimental demonstrations of memristors, where atomically thin layers of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs)[2,3,4,5] or hBN6,7 are used as insulators These 2D MIM structures promise to overcome the vertical scaling obstacle of TiO2-based devices and offer highly dense, fast, and ultra-low-power technology solutions[8,9,10] for various in-memory computing and communication applications. Despite their technological importance, the underlying physics behind the ultra-fast resistive switching (RS) in monolayers is not well understood yet, even for an extensively studied material such as 2H-MoS2. A universal theory applicable to both bipolar and unipolar switching devices is still distant
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