The high-power consumption caused by Joule heating is one reason for the emergence of the research area of neuromorphic computing. However, Joule heating is not only detrimental. In a specific class of devices considered for emulating firing of neurons, the formation of an electro-thermal filament sustained by locally confined Joule heating accompanies resistive switching. Here, the resistive switching in a V2O3-thin-film device is visualized via high-resolution wide-field microscopy. Although the formation and destruction of electro-thermal filaments dominate the resistive switching, the strain-induced coupling of the structural and electronic degrees of freedom leads to various unexpected effects like oblique filaments, filament splitting, memory effect, and a hysteretic current-voltage relation with saw-tooth like jumps at high currents.
Main Text:The strongly correlated electron system (SCES) V2O3 is a prototypical Mott-Hubbard insulator [1]. At room temperature, stoichiometric V2O3 is a paramagnetic metal with corundum structure, which undergoes a metal-to-insulator-transition (MIT) in cooling below about 150 K. The insulating phase is antiferromagnetic with monoclinic structure.Upon heating the insulating phase undergoes an insulator-to-metal-transition (IMT) [2][3][4]. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the resistive switching of SCES-devices [5].