Transverse barrier formation by electrical triggering of a metal-to-insulator transition

Abstract

Application of an electric stimulus to a material with a metal-insulator transition can trigger a large resistance change. Resistive switching from an insulating into a metallic phase, which typically occurs by the formation of a conducting filament parallel to the current flow, is a highly active research topic. Using the magneto-optical Kerr imaging, we found that the opposite type of resistive switching, from a metal into an insulator, occurs in a reciprocal characteristic spatial pattern: the formation of an insulating barrier perpendicular to the driving current. This barrier formation leads to an unusual N-type negative differential resistance in the current-voltage characteristics. We further demonstrate that electrically inducing a transverse barrier enables a unique approach to voltage-controlled magnetism. By triggering the metal-to-insulator resistive switching in a magnetic material, local on/off control of ferromagnetism is achieved using a global voltage bias applied to the whole device.

Morphology control of volatile resistive switching in La0.67Sr0.33MnO3 thin films on LaAlO3 (001)

“…The current-induced Joule heating-triggered resistive switching that our experiments demonstrate is unlike i) the widely studied Mott insulators that transform to a metallic state from an insulating state by forming a conducting filament parallel to the current flow or ii) LSMO films on well-ordered substrates, such as STO, where the switch from a metallic to an insulating state happens by the formation of a transverse barrier perpendicular to the current flow (Salev et al, 2021). By utilizing a substrate possessing twin domains, we are able to build a complex resistive structure based on the electronic phase transition.…”

“…In LSMO, for example, it has been shown that oxygen vacancy-driven resistive phase transitions occur and are accompanied by structural transformations from a perovskite to a brownmillerite phase (Brockman et al, 2014). Volatile resistive switching, on the other hand, utilizes the strong coupling between electronic and magnetic phases (Salev et al, 2021) and does not involve structural phase transitions (See Supplementary Figure S3 and Supplementary Figure S8).…”

Thermal Management in Neuromorphic Materials, Devices, and Networks

“…However, recently, thermal effects have been used to improve bioinspired features of a device, for example, by using a heater to develop leaky integrate-and-fire in a VO 2 -based nanodevice; thermally induced transverse insulating barrier in La 0.7 Sr 0.3 MnO 3 devices; [192] and threshold switching in niobium oxide. [170,193] Further, energy-efficient implementation based on Mott-neuron has also been achieved.…”

Dynamics of an Electrically Driven Phase Transition in Ca2RuO4 Thin Films: Nonequilibrium High‐Speed Resistive Switching in the Absence of an Abrupt Thermal Transition

“…[ 9–13 ] In previous studies, dynamics analysis and performance characterization of the metal–insulator transition have been conducted by fabricating two‐terminal electrodes on a material and inducing the transition via electric field application or current injection. Using the resistance changes under fields as a probe of the formation of the metallic phase, the dynamics and speed of the transition have been investigated for a variety of strongly correlated materials, including vanadium oxides (VO 2 , V 2 O 3 , and V 3 O 5 ), [ 5–7,9–11,13–15 ] metal chalcogenides (AM 4 X 8 (A = Ga and Ge, M = V, Nb, and Ta, X = S and Se), [ 3,4,8,16–19 ] Ni(S,Se) 2 , [ 19 ] and 1T‐TaS 2 [ 20,21 ] ), and rare‐earth perovskite manganites [ 22 ] and nickelates, [ 12 ] and high‐speed resistive switching with a switching time down to <100 ns has been demonstrated in some materials. [ 6,11,12,17,20 ]…”

“…[9][10][11][12][13] In previous studies, dynamics analysis and performance characterization of the metal-insulator transition have been conducted by fabricating two-terminal electrodes on a material and inducing the transition via electric field application or current injection. Using the resistance changes under fields as a probe of the formation of the metallic phase, the dynamics and speed of the transition have been investigated for a variety of strongly correlated materials, including vanadium oxides (VO 2 , V 2 O 3 , and V 3 O 5 ), [5][6][7][9][10][11][13][14][15] metal chalcogenides (AM 4 X 8 (A = Ga and Ge, M = V, Nb, and Ta, X = S and Se), [3,4,8,[16][17][18][19] Ni(S,Se) 2 , [19] and 1T-TaS 2 [20,21] ), and rare-earth perovskite manganites [22] and nickelates, [12] and high-speed resistive switching with a switching time down to <100 ns has been demonstrated in some materials. [6,11,12,17,20] Recent investigations have indicated that the electrically driven resistive switching in the strongly correlated materials is generally produced by the increase in the internal temperature due to Joule heating, and temperature-driven metal-insulator transitions that are the same as those induced by temperature In Mott-type resistive switching phenomena, which are based on the metalinsulator transition in strongly correlated materials, the presence of an abrupt temperature-driven transition in the material is considered essential for achieving high-speed and large-resistance-ratio switching.…”